Delhi Capitals (DC) defeated Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in a one-sided IPL 2025 match at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium on April 22 (Tuesday). Rishabh Pant continued his poor form as he scored a two-ball duck. In fact, in a strange move, he came out to bat as low as no.7, when he usually bats in the middle order. He has faced a lot of criticism for this move, and now Cheteshwar Pujara has joined in he criticism.

In an interaction with ESPN Cricinfo, Cheteshwar Pujara said that Rishabh Pant should be batting up the order. He also said that even though Pant is trying to emulate MS Dhoni, he is nowhere near an elite finisher like the former India captain. Hence, he should bat between overs 6 to 15.

"There's no doubt he should be batting up the order. He's trying to do what MS Dhoni does, but he's nowhere near that. He should be batting in the middle overs between 6 and 15. He's not a finisher and should not be doing the job of a finisher," Pujara added.

After being put in to bat first, LSG got off to a great start with Aiden Markram and Mitchell Marsh putting up an 87-run stand for the opening wicket. Markram got out for 52. Mitchell Marsh also got out for 45 shortly after, and after that, DC put on the brakes on the run scoring for LSG. The home side could only score 159/6 at the end of 20 overs. Mukesh Kumar stole the show with the ball as he picked up 4 wickets.

In reply, DC never had any difficulty during the run chase. Despite the early wicket of Karun Nair, Abhishek Porel and KL Rahul slammed twin half-centuries, and captain Axar Patel smashed 34 from 20 balls. The away side pulled off the run chase with 8 wickets and 13 balls to spare.

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