New Delhi:

Had they not lost few closely-fought matches, Lucknow Super Giants wouldn’t have been left to rue their failure to qualify for the IPL 2025 play-offs, said Mitchell Marsh.

They had begun on a positive note but faltered from the midway of the season and were particularly ineffective at the Ekana where they have lost four of their six home games so far.

LSG lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets at their home ground of the Ekana Stadium on Monday and were knocked out of the play-offs race, despite two matches still left.

“We lost a couple of close games throughout the season that now have come back to bite us, but yeah, it’s all about finishing off the season as strong as we possibly can now,” Marsh said after their loss to SRH.

Marsh has himself been in good touch throughout the tournament and scored 65 off 39 balls with six boundaries and four sixes. But his own good form that has fetched 443 runs with five half-centuries hasn’t been enough to drive the team to victory.

“I think the time for reflection is probably after the season and for me personally just focus on trying to contribute to winning the next two games for our team and for our franchise. Like I said, the IPL is a beast of a tournament and the margins are really small,” the top-order batter said.

When his opinion was sought about the positive takeaways from an otherwise disappointing season, the Australian said he would evaluate only after completion of their campaign after 14 league games.

Pant struggles to make a mark

Pant could only score 134 runs in 12 matches at a strike-rate of below 100 to mark his his worst campaign since making his debut for Delhi Capitals in 2016.

LSG put a lot of faith on Rishabh Pant who they made the costliest player in the history of the tournament with a Rs 27 crore price tag. But pressure of expectations along with the added of responsibility of captaincy might have got to him as he failed to fire with the bat throughout the campaign.

“He would be the first one to say that he hasn’t had a season that he would have liked, but I know for myself personally that that’s the way cricket goes sometimes,” top-order batter Marsh said.

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