Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
On Monday, March 24, Delhi Capitals (DC) registered a comfortable one-wicket win over Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) , to start their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 campaign on a high. At the Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhaptanam, the DC top-order suffered a collapse, but it was Ashutosh Sharma, who stood tall to guide his team to victory. Although, Tristan Stubbs (34) and Vipraj Nigam (39) played crucial knocks, it was Ashutosh, whose 66* helped DC register the win in a nail-biting thriller.
For the unversed, DC captain, Axar Patel won the toss and invited the Rishabh Pant-led side to put the target on the board. Aiden Markram and Mitchell Marsh added 46 runs for the first wicket, Nicholas Pooran joined Marsh then as the duo put 87-run stand to help the side post a decent score of 209 on the board. D avid Miller also played a quick cameo, with his 19-ball 27.
Youngsters shine in DC’s close one-wicket win vs LSG in Vizag
In the bowling department for DC, Mitchell Starc was the pick, scalping three wickets, whereas Kuldeep Yadav got two and Vipraj Nigam and Mukesh Kumar got one each to their name. In the run-chase for DC, Jake Fraser-McGurk could not do much talking with the bat as he departed after having scored one off two deliveries. However, Faf du Plessis looked good, but was dismissed off Ravi Bishnoi’s over with David Miller completing a catch. DC skipper Axar Patel tried hard, but was removed by Digvesh Rathi after playing 11-ball 22.
With the scorecard reading 50/4, Tristan Stubbs looked good, hitting three sixes and scoring at a strike rate of 154.55, but was cleaned up by M Siddharth. Newcomer Vipraj Nigam then joined Ashutosh Sharma in the middle, hitting the bowlers all over, but was eventually removed by Digvesh to get the game back in LSG’s hand.
With 22 needed off 12 deliveries, DC still looked in the game with Ashutosh Sharma playing a crucial inning, playing a 31-ball 66* and guiding his side over the line. For LSG, their bowlers did decently well. Shardul Thakur, M Siddharth, Digvesh Rathi, Ravi Bishnoi, all finished with two wickets each, whereas Prince Yadav and Shahbaz Ahmed failed to get among them.
