LUCKNOW, May 29 -- One good knock even in the last game of the season has changed everyone's perspective of the Lucknow Super Giants' captain Rishabh Pant, even as team mentor, Zaheer 'Zak' Khan, averred that the team never doubted Rishabh Pant's quality as a batter. Pant had a tough time in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 after LSG failed to make their way through to the playoffs and finished seventh in consecutive seasons. However, the 27-year-old Pant was at his very best in LSG's last league game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru here on Tuesday. He hammered his second IPL hundred off 54 balls and guided LSG through to a score of 227 for three. Zaheer said that Pant's leadership was a "bright spot" for LSG in the season, but said that the tournament would be a learning experience for him as a batter. "Well, he's been good as a leader. That was a bright positive for us throughout the season. The form with the bat was definitely a learning experience for him, having this kind of season. But his ability and calibre are not in doubt. That's how we are looking at it," Zaheer said after the match on Tuesday night. "We're happy he finished on a strong note - that's the calibre he has, and the impact he can have on the game," Zaheer added. Pant's knock, however, went in vain as RCB won the match by six wickets after chasing the mammoth target in 18.4 overs. The Super Giants finished their campaign seventh with 12 points and a net run rate of -0.376 thanks to wins in six out of 14 games. On LSG's journey throughout the season, Zaheer said that they started with a plan to make it to the playoffs, but things didn't happen that way. "When you start off the IPL season, your first goal is to think of the playoffs, how you are going to get there, what kind of plans you are going to have," he said. "We obviously made a conscious effort to not pay too much attention to the challenges which we faced at the beginning of the season, which is losing a few of our main bowlers to injuries. We are still going to find a way of putting up games of cricket together and finding ways of winning the match." "That is the process which everyone was aligned to and looking at that, we have had a decent season from that point of view, but yes, we fell short and putting the game together was a challenge which was evident right throughout the season and those are the learnings which we have from the season," he added. On the positives from the season, Zaheer said that there were many positives even after failing to make the cut for the playoffs. "There are positives, a lot of positives, the stability was evident with regard to batting, but with regard to bowling, we were trying to figure out the combinations. We were trying to figure out the options which can get us over the line and that was the story right throughout the season." However, he said that though the season is done but the journey has just begun. "We got the building blocks in place, it is just about sustaining and keep working on things which we have to work on, the learnings from the season and come back strong. This is something which we would really like to do for the upcoming season," he said, adding, "Well, I think you got to play good cricket, that is something which we have been focused on always."...