Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Apart from the soaring sixes, stumps being sent cartwheeling, crushing yorkers rattling the timber, creamy drives and breathtaking catches by fielders, the Indian Premier League has also witnessed several on-field altercations.If we talk about on-field feuds – Harbhajan Singh slapping S Sreesanth in what came to be known as ‘Slapgate’, Kieron Pollard throwing his bat at Mitchell Starc, Ravichandran Ashwin ‘Mankading’ Jos Buttler, and Gautam Gambhir’s heated spat with Virat Kohli – the cash-rich league has seen it all. However, the cricketers later decided to bury their animosity, patch things up and move forward with mutual respect.One such recent example was the verbal duel between Nitish Rana and Digvesh Rathi during the Delhi Premier League. The two players have now patched up, and the credit goes to Rishabh Pant.
Ahead of the IPL 2026 clash between Lucknow Super Giants and Delhi Capitals at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow, LSG captain Pant played the role of peacemaker between Rana and Rathi.“Tu kaha ja raha hai? Bas ho gaya, (Where are you going? Enough,” Pant can be heard saying to his teammate Rathi in a video shared by LSG.A smiling Rana was also heard telling Rathi, “In that case, I’ll have to sit with you.”In the clip, Delhi Capitals spinner Kuldeep Yadav is seen stepping in and hugging Pant while saying, “Bohut gyaan de diya”.That is when Pant added, “This is the problem with both.”The two cricketers – Rana and Rathi – were seen burying the hatchet and sharing a laugh with each other ahead of the LSG vs DC clash on Wednesday.Both Lucknow Super Giants and Delhi Capitals endured underwhelming campaigns in IPL 2025, missing out on playoff qualification. Delhi narrowly fell short, finishing fifth and just one point away from the top four, while Lucknow ended seventh after managing six wins in their 14 league matches.Squads:Lucknow Super Giants: Rishabh Pant (C & WK), Nicholas Pooran (WK), Josh Inglis (WK), Aiden Markram, Matthew Breetzke, Himmat Singh, Akshat Raghuwanshi, Mohammed Shami, Avesh Khan, Mayank Yadav, Anrich Nortje, Mohsin Khan, Manimaran Siddharth, Digvesh Rathi, Akash Singh, Prince Yadav, Arjun Tendulkar, Naman Tiwari, Mitchell Marsh, Wanindu Hasaranga, Ayush Badoni, Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed and Arshin Kulkarni.Delhi Capitals: Axar Patel (C), KL Rahul (WK), Nitish Rana, Abishek Porel (WK), Ajay Mandal, Ashutosh Sharma, Dushmantha Chameera, Karun Nair, Kuldeep Yadav, Madhav Tiwari, Mitchell Starc, Sameer Rizvi, T Natarajan, Tripurana Vijay, Tristan Stubbs, Vipraj Nigam, Mukesh Kumar, David Miller, Ben Duckett, Auqib Nabi, Pathum Nissanka, Lungi Ngidi, Sahil Parikh, Prithvi Shaw and Kyle Jamieson.
