'Slowing Down The Game Intentionally': Netizens Slam Rishabh Pant During KKR vs LSG Game, Blame Him For Faking Injury

IPL 2025: Kolkata Knight Riders are locking horns with Lucknow Super Giants at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The defending champions, who are being led by Ajinkya Rahane, have been decent so far in the ongoing eighteenth edition of the Indian Premier League. Kolkata Knight Riders have won two games so far and are well in contention to qualify for the playoffs.

Kolkata Knight Riders are currently in the fifth spot on the IPL points table, and they'll like to enter the top 4. The Lucknow Super Giants, led by Rishabh Pant, made light work of Kolkata Knight Riders' bowling and smashed 238 runs from their quota of 20 overs. The onslaught led by Mitchell Marsh, Nicholas Pooran, and Aiden Markram helped LSG amass such a huge total against the defending champions in their own den.

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Netizens Blame Rishabh Pant For Slowing The Game Down

Kolkata Knight Riders started their chase really well despite Proteas wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock's early exit. Skipper Ajinkya Rahane stepped up for Kolkata and scored 61 runs off 35 deliveries. Rahane scored these runs with a strike rate of 174.29. Despite Rahane's heroics, it is Rishabh Pant who has been grabbing the headlines, and it seems that he is in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

Before the start of the 12th over, when KKR were going all out in the run chase, Rishabh Pant called the Lucknow Super Giants physios out to nurse his back. It is undoubtedly hot in Kolkata, and Pant might have been feeling uncomfortable, but the netizens are terming it to be another strategy by Rishabh Pant.

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Here's How The Internet Reacted

Kolkata Knight Riders Eye Consistency In Team Combination

By the looks of it, the Kolkata Knight Riders haven't really found their team combination. It is their batting that has been worrisome, and they need a fix to it. In their previous match against the Sunrisers Hyderabad, KKR dropped Spencer Johnson to pick Moeen Ali. Interestingly, in the ongoing game against Lucknow, Kolkata rested Moeen Ali and brought in Johnson as their fourth overseas player.