IPL, DC vs LSG: Ashutosh Sharma secures win for Delhi from the jaws of defeat
Ashutosh Sharma’s unbeaten 66 overshadows the pyrotechnics of Mitchell Marsh and Nicholas Pooran as Delhi Capitals sneak home by 1 wicket against Lucknow Super Giants.
Impact Player Ashutosh Sharma played an innings to remember to take Delhi Capitals to a thrilling one-wicket over Lucknow Super Giants. Chasing 210 for victory, Ashutosh was at one stage 20 off 20 deliveries as the asking rate mounted. But despite running out of partners, he scored his next 46 runs off just 11 deliveries to take Delhi home at Vizag with three balls to spare.
It was a night when Ashutosh proved that his power-hitting exploits of last season with Punjab Kings wasn’t a fluke. If anything, each of his five boundaries and as many sixes, with the game on the line, showed how much he has matured as a batsman who can survive the tough phases and affect a turnaround. With 39 runs needed off the last three overs and despite losing one of the remaining three wickets on the first ball of the 18th over, Ashutosh calmly took Delhi home as Lucknow’s weak bowling was exposed in their first outing
A scintillating knock 🔥
Magnificent Ashutosh’s sensational match-winning 66*(31) 👏👏
🔽 Watch | #TATAIPL | #DCvLSG | @DelhiCapitals
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 24, 2025
Fresh approach
From the time they came into the IPL fold, there have been only seven instances of Lucknow breaching the 200-run mark. Much of it has been due to their old-school approach of saving wickets for the back end of the innings. They wanted to move away from that philosophy, so they went back to the drawing board, sought a change at the top and brought in players who would fit that mould. Their top four includes Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Nicholas Pooran and Rishabh Pant, followed by David Miller and Ayush Badoni. And in the dugout they have Abdul Samad and Aryan Juyal warming the bench.
Made to bat first at Vizag, a venue where tall scores can be common because of the small ground, their explosive batting line-up showed promising signs. Markram opened with Marsh, a move that was largely on the expected lines, but moving forward how much they stick to the South African, only time will tell, for he has struggled to keep up with the aggressive brand of cricket in the past at Sunrisers Hyderabad.
A flamboyant knock 🫡
Powerful Pooran’s sparkled with 75(30) ✨
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 24, 2025
But in Marsh, Lucknow have the right player to make the most of the Powerplay. With a good game off both feet, Marsh has the ability to impact games in the Powerplay. That’s what he went about doing after Lucknow lost Markram, as he went after fellow Australian Mitchell Starc. The faster it came from Starc’s left hand, the farther it travelled.
The first ball Marsh faced disappeared over mid-wicket and from there on, he remained in top gear. Delhi provided him freebies as well. When he brought up his fifty of 21 deliveries, he had seven hits to the fence and beyond that came off short-pitched deliveries that Marsh feasted on.
Fiery Opening Act 🔥
Marvelous Marsh entertains Vizag with 72(36) 🍿
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 24, 2025
If Marsh’s onslaught was hard to stop, Pooran made it all the more difficult for Capitals captain Axar Patel. Arguably the best T20 batsman going around, there is a reason why the left-hander puts all the match-up equations in the bin. Capable of taking down both pacers and spinners with ease, Pooran’s range and constant movement at the crease makes him a difficult batsman to keep quiet for long. After Sameer Rizvi dropped an easy chance early on, Pooran just exploded. With a left-right combo in the middle, Delhi’s attack searched for answers as a total in excess of 250 looked likely when LSG were 117/1 after 10 overs.
Comeback, Act 1
From there, Delhi did an incredible job to pull the game back. Much of it was down to Kuldeep Yadav, who with his variations and change of pace, brought the scoring rate down by taking the key wickets of Pant and Badoni. The 13th over alone was an exception as Tristan Stubbs conceded four consecutive sixes and a boundary as Pooran used his brute power to good effect. Outside of it, however, Lucknow kept losing wickets at regular intervals as they tried to up the ante and perished. If losing two settled batsmen wasn’t bad enough, the likes of Pant, Badoni and Shardul Thakur failed to make a mark. Except for David Miller, who remained unbeaten on 27, none in the middle and lower order got to double digits as Lucknow ended up with 209/8.
Comeback, Act 2
Chasing a steep target, all eyes were on Lucknow’s depleted attack with Thakur as their premier seamer. But, truth be told, for a major part of the second innings, Lucknow had the game in their bag as Thakur, who went unsold at the auction, provided early breakthroughs by removing Jake Fraser-McGurk and Abhishek Porel in the first over. From there on, Lucknow kept chipping away as Faf du Plessis and Axar Patel couldn’t keep going after the strong start they had made.
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By the half-way mark, Delhi had only 88 on board and, more importantly, just five wickets in hand. Thereafter, Stubbs briefly got them back into the game with a quickfire 34 that provided some sort of momentum that Delhi desperately sought. But when he fell at 113, the target looked far away as Ashutosh was struggling to find the flow. However, Vipraj Nigam provided some much-need impetus, scoring 39 off 15, as the pressure began to swing to the inexperienced Lucknow bowling attack. With their lead spinner Ravi Bishnoi going for 53 runs in his quota of four overs, the rest could hardly pose any sort of challenge when it mattered.
