The Lucknow Super Giants easily won the match by five wickets after Sunrisers Hyderabad set a 191-run total in Match 7 of the 2025 Indian Premier League. The LSG batsmen dominated the target with 23 balls remaining, and David Miller hit the game-winning boundary off Ishan Kishan. The game’s highest scorer, Nicholas Pooran, made the chase simpler with a booming 70-run knock.
At the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, LSG bowlers’ clinical bowling earlier in the game enabled the team limit SRH to less than 200, which is becoming a little unusual in the IPL, particularly after the previous season. While Travis Head was Hyderabad’s solitary bright spot in the first innings and Aniket Verma made a spectacular cameo towards the finish, Shardul Thakur was the team’s standout player with the ball.
Talking Points
1. Shardul ‘Unsold’ Thakur proves his worth
On the first ball of his second over, Shardul picked up the wicket of opener Abhishek Sharma, followed by the dismissal of Ishan Kishan on the very next delivery. The double whammy put a sort of stem on the flow of runs from SRH’s end, as only Head kept finding boundaries, while others struggled to get going. Shardul took a couple of more wickets in the second spell, finishing with 4-34 in his four overs. He also completed 100 wickets in IPL history with his last wicket of the day. Not only this, but the Palghar Express is now the IPL 2025 Purple Cap holder.
2. Poo-runs the show
During the chase, the first wicket fell pretty early in the form of Aiden Markram. However, Nicholas Pooran, who came in at 3, wasted no time whatsoever to find boundaries. Scoring at a lightening-fast run-rate, Pooran swayed his way to a fifty off just 18 balls, the fastest for this season so far. He was also involved in a 116-run partnership with Mitchell Marsh, who made 52 off 31. The Caribbean batter further swung his blade to finish with 70 off only 26 balls, before getting out lbw off Pat Cummins.
3. SRH get a taste of their own medicine
Ever since Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma started opening for SRH, they became the most feared pair for any opposition in the league. Known for their tantalizing proceedings to the game, Shardul Thakur ensured he did not let the duo last longer. Although Head found a few balls hit towards the boundary, he too departed, falling prey to a brilliant yorker by Prince Yadav. During the chase, Pooran and Marsh scored runs at a blazingly fast rate, reminding the Pat Cummins-led side of how cricket can be a great leveller.
Who Said What?
Shardul Thakur, Player of the Match, said
“I had made my plans. I had signed for County Cricket if I wasn’t picked for IPL. While playing Ranji, I got a call from Zaheer Khan that we are looking at you as a potential replacement, so don’t switch yourself off. If we get you we’ll need you to start. That was the day I got back in the IPL zone. Ups and downs keep happening. That was a bad day when I wasn’t picked in the auction.
Of course, some swing and what we have seen is that Travis Head and Abhishek like to take their chances so let me take my chances as well. See I feel bowlers get very little on this kind of pitches. Even in the last game pre-match I said that pitches should be prepared in such a way that the game hangs in the balance for batters and bowlers. Especially after the Impact Player rule, it’s not fair on the bowlers.”
Rishabh Pant, LSG captain, said
“Definitely a big relief, but as a team we talk about the process. We don’t want to get too high after winning and too low after losing, taking it one match at a time. It was a big concern, but as a team we don’t want to focus on uncontrollables. Like my mentor said, focus on controllables.
Good to see Avesh come back, Shardul bowling well. [On Pooran’s batting position] I think we just want to give freedom to him. I like that freedom too. But we’ve just told him to go express himself and he’s batting phenomenally for us. Everyone is preparing really well, training well.”
Pat Cummins, SRH captain, said
“Different wicket to the other day. We wanted to get above 200. A little short but they batted very well. The other day was the world’s best wicket, today’s was probably the second best. Every time it’s a fresh game. Really happy with how we went. They bowled really well. A few things didn’t go our way, but we did pretty well to get to 190. You always hope for that one person to bat through the innings, like Ishan did that day. But we missed that. But we had a few good cameos.
You always back your players to play how they see it. Normally, when someone gets in, they go long. We have batting till 8 so we are not telling someone to bat 50–60 balls, just go out and make an impact. We’ll review it, see what we could have done better. It’s a long competition. So you kind of ride last game’s high and this game’s low.”
India
