Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) are out of the IPL 2025 playoffs race after Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) defeated them by six wickets in Lucknow. It was the first of three must-win games for Rishabh Pant and his team, but they failed in front of their home crowd.
SRH skipper Pat Cummins won the toss and chose to bowl first. LSG openers got off to a flying start, thanks to Mitchell Marsh and Aiden Markram. They added 115 runs in 10.3 overs before SRH debutant Harsh Dubey dismissed Marsh for 65 off 39 balls.
LSG captain Rishabh Pant came in at number three, but his poor form continued. He got out for just seven runs. After that, Nicholas Pooran (45 off 26) and Markram added some runs, before the latter got out for 61 off 38 balls. The rest of the batters failed to contribute much. LSG scored only 81 runs in the last eight overs and lost five wickets.
For SRH, Eshan Malinga took two wickets. Dubey, Harshal Patel, and Nitish Kumar Reddy took one each.
In reply, Abhishek Sharma opened the innings with Atharva Taide. Taide came in as an impact player. Travis Head missed the match due to being infected with COVID-19. Taide scored 13 off 9 balls before getting out, but Abhishek kept going. He and Ishan Kishan added 82 runs for the second wicket in 5.5 overs.
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Digvesh Rathi dismissed Abhishek for 59 off 20 balls and gave him a send-off, which didn’t go down well with the SRH opener. Both players had a heated exchange, and the umpires and players had to step in.
Kishan scored 35 off 28 balls. Heinrich Klaasen made 47 off 28, and Kamindu Mendis added 32 off 21. SRH chased down the target in 18.2 overs with six wickets in hand.
Apart from Rathi’s two wickets, Shardul Thakur and Will O’Rourke took one each. This was also the first successful 200-plus chase in IPL history at the Ekana Stadium.
After the match, while speaking to the broadcaster, Pant said: “The way we planned the auction, if we would have had the same bowling, the story would have been different. Sometimes things go your way, sometimes they don’t. We take pride in the way we played and will look at the positives. We have a strong batting firepower. Even for bowlers, there were times when they were bowling in good areas. We were trying to make the best of it. We knew we were ten runs short. We were good in patches but did not close out the game.”
Also Read: LSG vs SRH: Digvesh Rathi and Abhishek Sharma’s Heated Exchange, Video Goes Viral