The Lucknow Super Giants defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad away from home to start the 2025 Indian Premier League.
With SRH’s formidable batting versus LSG’s inexperienced bowling, the match had high expectations, but Shardul Thakur (4/34) put an end to all the chatter with a double strike in the third over. Travis Head kept SRH together, but after he was fired, a series of events led to LSG gaining more control over the hosts. To get SRH to 190, exceptional cameos from Pat Cummins (18 off 4) and Aniket Verma (36 off 13) were required.
The early loss of Aiden Markram by LSG only accelerated Nicholas Pooran’s (70 off 26) arrival.
Almost none of SRH’s bowlers were spared by Pooran, and with Mitchell Marsh (52 off 31) at his side, he made the outcome inevitable before the half had reached halftime. Abdul Samad, a former SRH player, then made a brief appearance to add the final touches.
Here are the most important stas from the game:
25 – Shardul Thakur became the 25th bowler to take one hundred wickets in the IPL.
4 – Pat Cummins became the fourth player to hit each of the first three balls he faced in an IPL innings for six. Cummins emulated a feat previously achieved by Sunil Narine against RCB in 2021, Nicholas Pooran against SRH in 2023 and MS Dhoni against MI in 2024.
3 – Pat Cummins’ strike rate of 450 is the third highest in an IPL innings of minimum 15 runs. MS Dhoni and Krunal Pandya share the top spot with a strike rate of 500 from unbeaten innings of 20 from just 4 balls.
5 – There have been 5 instances of an SRH player opening both the batting and the bowling in an IPL match. All five are by Abhishek Sharma.
1 – No Indian player has opened both the batting and the bowling in the same IPL game as often or more times than Abhishek Sharma’s five, Irfan Pathan is next with three. Kyle Mayers has also done this five times, while Sunil Narine (6), Shane Watson (7) and Jacques Kallis (12) are the only ones ahead of Abhishek.
2 – LSG’s powerplay total of 77/1 is their second highest behind the 80/1 they put up against CSK in 2023.
2 – Nicholas Pooran’s 18-ball fifty is the second fastest for LSG in IPL, behind his own 15-ball fifty against RCB in 2023. Pooran also holds the third spot on this list with a 19-ball fifty against MI in 2023.
1 – Nicholas Pooran brought up his third IPL fifty in less than 20 balls – which is the joint most. Travis Head and Jake Fraser-McGurk also have as many.
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