Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
On Saturday, April 12, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) had to earn a six-wicket win over Gujarat Titans (GT) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 clash at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow in the last over with three balls to spare. After Shardul Thakur and Ravi Bishnoi picked up a couple of wickets each, playing a key role in restricting GT to 180/6, the LSG batters chased it down on the back of exceptional fifties from Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran.
For the unversed, Rishabh Pant, the captain of LSG, won the toss and decided to field first, and they struggled with the ball in the first half of the bowling innings. GT openers Sai Sudharsan (56 off 37) and Shubman Gill (60 off 38), shared a 120-run stand for the first wicket, and completed their fifties in the IPL 2025 season, putting their team in a great position to go past 200-run total.
But then, the LSG bowling sprung into action, not allowing the middle of GT to score runs quickly, and took wickets regularly with the likes of Shardul Thakur and Ravi Bishnoi being the key performers. In the run chase, Rishabh Pant promoted himself to the opening slot in the absence of Mitchell Marsh due to personal reasons, and he shared a partnership of 65 runs with Aiden Markram.
After Rishabh Pant brought up his highest score of 21 runs for the IPL 2025 season in LSG colours, Nicholas Pooran took control of the innings for his team with his exceptional power-hitting. Before losing their wickets in the second half of the innings, Markram (58 off 31) and Pooran (61 off 34) put LSG in a winning position, but a couple of quick wickets from GT raised their hopes of an unlikely comeback.
Although Ayush Badoni had other ideas as his 28 runs in 20 balls were enough to take LSG over the finishing line for an important victory.
