From going unsold to now holding the Purple Cap—yes, welcome to the IPL, a league that never fails to amaze. The past few days have been eventful for Shardul Thakur. Everyone was surprised when he went unsold in the auction, but LSG later picked him as a replacement for the injured Mohsin Khan. Shardul took two wickets in his first match against Delhi Capitals, and today, he dismissed Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan—who had scored a hundred in the last match—on consecutive deliveries. He finished with impressive figures of 4/34 from his four-over quota and also reached the milestone of 100 IPL wickets in this match.
Pat Cummins led from the front with a stellar all-round performance—first smashing three sixes in as many balls and then dismissing both Nicholas Pooran and Mitchell Marsh, who were threatening to take the game away from SRH.
Pooran and Marsh came to the crease after Shami dismissed Aiden Markram for just 1. They carried their fine form from the last match, where Marsh played a blistering knock of 72 off 36 balls and Pooran scored a flamboyant 75 off 30 balls. Pooran was in sublime form today, showing no respect to the SRH bowlers as he hammered 70 off just 26 balls at an astonishing strike rate of 269.23. Meanwhile, Marsh also took on the SRH attack, scoring 52 off 31 balls at a strike rate of 167.74.