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Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Lucknow Super Giants Highlights & Analysis – Nicholas Pooran and Mitchell Marsh’s fifties and strong bowling led Lucknow Super Giants to a five-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad, marking their first IPL 2025 victory. Get the full match result, top performances, and in-depth…Read More
Nicholas Pooran (L) and Mitchell Marsh set-up LSG’s stellar win. (Sportzpics Photo)
Sincillating fifties from Nicholas Pooran and Mitchell Marsh and a spirited bowling effort helped Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) to beat Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by five wickets to register their first win of IPL 2025. It wasn’t just any win, though — it was as big as statement wins come in this competition.
As Rishabh Pant’s team were making their way from a humbling defeat to Delhi Capitals in Vizag to the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, the talk was all about how this might be the match SRH’s big-hitters break through the 300-run barrier. LSG’s bowling lineup was weak and Pat Cummins’ men had only days ago scored the second-highest total in the tournament history (only behind their own record) here.
Pant changed the narrative at the toss, by putting them to bat first and declaring at the toss, ‘It doesn’t matter, whatever total they’ll put, we’ll chase it’. His bowlers responded by keeping them down to 190/9 in the first innings — equivalent to 90/9 in Chepauk — and shooting it down in a canter, in 16.1 overs.
SRH knew they had a sub-par score on board considering how flat the surface is and thus seemed to try to create an atmosphere of siege through the loud passionate crowd. A near run-out in the first over and then the soft dismissal of former SRH man Aiden Markram to Mohammed Shami in the second made them believe.
But they were up against the man with the biggest self-belief, Nicholas Pooran. Coming to this tournament fitter and stronger, the wicketkeeper-batter just started from where he left off against the Capitals, smashing at least one six in every over from third to seventh against the entirety of SRH’s new-ball attack.
Marsh took his time and timed his shots well on the other end. By the eighth over, LSG had crossed the three-figure mark. The start meant that when Cummins had his inevitable say in the game — he got out Pooran LBW for 70 (26) and Marsh caught for 52 (31) in consecutive overs — SRH were already at an easy 138/3.
Delhi boys Rishabh Pant and Ayush Badoni got out in quick succession, too, but even then the score was 164/5 in the 15th over. A handful of big hits from David Miller and Abdul Samad finished things off.
Given that SRH had met them with a similarly disdainful defeat the last time these sides played in Hyderabad, the three points just seemed to mean more to everyone in LSG colors.
The first innings was set-up by Shardul Thakur being, well…. Shardul Thakur. The pacer, who came as an injury replacement for Mohsin Khan, opened the innings with a lot of heavy balls.
Travis Head munched on them, and also looseners from the returning Avesh Khan to get SRH’s innings away strongly. But Thakur returned for the third over and got off Abhishek Sharma — with a slower bouncer — and Ishan Kishan — with a typical strangle down the leg — on back-to-back deliveries.
Ignore that Head kept on attacking him. These two wickets canceled all thoughts of 300 that SRH might have had seeing the weak and depleted LSG bowling attack.
Then Head did what he does, he played some delightful shots against the pacers, getting good support from Nitish Kumar Reddy from the other end, but got dropped off two badly-timed strokes in Ravi Bishnoi’s first over of spin in the innings. Pooran and Bishnoi himself were the culprits.
But just when it seemed like Head would again run away with his luck against another blue-jersey team, youngster Prince Yadav dared to bowl a full and straight ball against him, deriving a rare miss and bowled. Yadav, as if borrowing all of Head’s luck with that wicket, soon had a ball ricochet off his hand after a shot from Reddy and land straight at the non-striker end’s stumps, catching Klaasen shot despite no fault of his.
Bishnoi came back and took out Reddy in the 15th over and SRH were caught reeling at 128/5. Then, 23-year-old Aniket Verma took matters into his own hands in just his second IPL match (his second recognised T20 overall) smashing sixes galore against Bishnoi and Digvesh Rathi for his firecracking 13-ball 36.
Rathi eventually got him out and Thakur came back to make sure Abhinav Manohar’s search for his first double-digit score for SRH continued with a full ball that was sliced to the deep. Skipper Pat Cummins showed fight with three consecutive big-ones, two in Avesh’s share and one in Thakur’s.
Cummins finally fell to Avesh and Thakur took out Shami in the last over to register four wickets. There was a definite swag in how he wore the Purple Cap in the mid-innings break. He has made many a statement in his career so far, and for him and LSG, it just seemed the start of another one.
SRH vs LSG: Who Won Today’s IPL Match?
Result: LSG Beat SRH By 5 Wickets
Brief Scores:
SRH: 190/9 in 20 overs (Travis Head 47; Shardul Thakur 4/34).
LSG: 193/5 in 16.1 overs (Nicholas Pooran 70; Pat Cummins 2/29).
Player of the match: Shardul Thakur (4/34)
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