Lucknow Super Giants have retaliated ferociously after suffering an agonizing defeat versus Delhi Capitals at the start of the week. Rishabh Pant and his troops have managed to open their account in IPL 2025 by defeating Sunrisers Hyderabad with five wickets and 3.5 overs to spare. The Shardul Thakur-led attack kept the hosts to 190, a moderate score by their standards, with Thakur picking up a four-fer before Nicholas Pooran and Mitchell Marsh bossed the tall chase.
What was the deciding factor?
Wickets punctuated the SRH innings. Thakur sent the dangerous left-handers Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan packing, and the rest of the bowling group backed up his early exploits with tight lines. On the other hand, LSG peeled off boundaries at will during the Pooran-Marsh stand, with the second-wicket partnership in just a tick over seven overs completely sweeping the Sunrisers off their feet.
SRH rebuild well after shaky start
Having scored 286 in their previous outing, SRH were primed to produce an encore. However, Thakur and Avesh Khan combined to keep the score down to 15 after two overs as their varying lengths did the containing job. Thakur then bagged the prized scalp of Abhishek for the third time across seven T20s with a bouncer and followed it up by strangling the in-form Kishan down leg. Travis Head blazed off the blocks in typical fashion, garnering 18 in an Avesh over, as SRH showed signs of recovery. Head was reprieved twice in the sixth over as Pooran and Ravi Bishnoi fumbled the catching opportunities, much to LSG’s chagrin.
An even-stevens middle period of wickets and runs
Prince Yadav bowled a full thunderbolt to rattle the stumps of the rampaging Head, bringing LSG back in the contest. Yadav, who bowled four overs in a row, pitched the ball right under the bat and mixed it up with off-paced yorkers on the tramline. He even ran out Heinrich Klaasen at the non-striker’s end since he was backing up too far after Nitish Reddy cudgeled a ball back to him. Things were now looking rosy for the tourists as Bishnoi cleaned up Reddy with a 105kmph sizzler, but Aniket Verma was determined to make an impact. Having gone downtown against the leg-spinner in the 13th over, Verma penalized Bishnoi for serving in the slot with two more maximums in a productive 15th over.
Sixes aplenty at the death with wickets falling around
Verma continued to show his ball-striking caliber with successive sixes off Rathi, but the bowler had the last laugh to wrap up his blizzard worth 36(13). While Abhinav Manohar became Thakur’s victim, SRH skipper Pat Cummins played a blinder wherein he smoked three sixes in his four-ball stay to push his franchise towards 200.
Pooran, Marsh press the accelerator from the word go
Left-arm spinner Abhishek began with a tranquil over, but it was just a lull before the storm. Pooran smashed two sixes on the on-side off Simarjeet Singh and Marsh bludgeoned the living daylights out of Mohammad Shami with two sixes in an 18-run over. The move to reintroduce Abhishek backfired spectacularly with Pooran, who has a positive match-up against that bowling type, badgering two sixes as LSG brought up 50 inside five overs.
𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓. 𝐀. 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇 😮
Watch Harshal Patel's stunning grab running in from the deep 🔝
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Second-wicket stand ushers Lucknow to touching distance of victory
The hosts roped in Adam Zampa as their impact sub but Pooran slog-swept the Australian for six to register the fastest half-century so far in this year’s IPL, off 18 balls. Harshal Patel couldn’t pick up the slack either, delivering a nine-ball 15-run over as the partnership went beyond 100. Pooran was unable to keep out a shooter into his pads and fell to Cummins even as Marsh brought up his second 50 on the trot with consecutive boundaries off the captain before holing out to long-on. Simarjeet was greeted back into the attack with a six by Rishabh Pant but the young Ayush Badoni was caught impressively by Harshal, who chimed in from the mid-wicket boundary, in the next over as prospects of a fightback emerged. The optimism around the Uppal stadium increased when Harshal had Pant edging what was almost a waist-high no-ball to third-man, but Abdul Samad hit a four and a six to round off the 15th over and leave LSG requiring only 15 runs in the slog overs. He continued to muscle the ball as he tore into the off-colour Zampa, thumping a six and a four before David Miller finished proceedings with 23 balls to spare.
