Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) suffered a heartbreaking one-wicket defeat at the hands of Delhi Capitals (DC) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 opener in Visakhapatnam on Monday (March 24).
Ashutosh Sharma (66* off 31) pulled off a heist for ages, coming in at 65/5 while chasing 210 and producing a memorable partnership with Vipraj Nigam to take DC over the line with three deliveries to spare.
With six runs needed in the final over, LSG skipper Rishabh Pant chose Shahbaz Ahmed to bowl. The first delivery saw Mohit Sharma step down the track and miss, with Pant failing to complete the stumping.
Although Pant took a review for LBW, the ball was shown to have missed the stumps. Mohit managed a single, which brought Ashutosh on strike and the latter sealed the deal with a six over Shahbaz's head.
After the game, Rishabh Pant reflected on the missed stumping and said, "Definitely, luck plays a part in this game, and if it could have missed his (Mohit Sharma's) pads, it was a chance for stumping. But these things happen in the game of cricket. You can't focus on these things, but rather, you need to play better cricket."
Invited to bat first, LSG posted 209/8 on the board on the back of half-centuries from Mitchell Marsh (72) and Nicholas Pooran (75).
"I think our top-order batters played really well, and I think it was a pretty good score on this wicket. As a team, we are looking to take positives from every match, and as a team, we are looking to learn from it (every match.) The more basics we do right, the more it is going to be better for us in the future. We got early wickets, but we knew it was a good wicket to bat on. We had to keep doing the basics right more often than not," Pant added.
In reply, Ashutosh rose to the occasion for DC as an Impact Player. He was ably supported by Tristan Stubbs (34 off 22) and Vipraj Nigam (39 off 15) during the chase.
"I think they had a couple of good partnerships. One with Stubbs, one with Ashutosh and one with one other guy (Vipraj Nigam.) I think he (Nigam) did a pretty good job and took the game away from us. There was enough for the bowlers, but I think we could have done the basics right. We felt the pressure, we are still settling in, but a lot of positives to take from this match," Pant remarked.
