Mitchell Marsh and Nicholas Pooran's blistering fifties overshadow Axar Patel's valiant attempt in vain as LSG defeat DC by one wicket

Mitchell Marsh and Nicholas Pooran set the platform for an improbable Lucknow Super Giants win over the Delhi Capitals in the IPL 2025 opener.

Blistering fifties from Mitchell Marsh and Nicholas Pooran powered the Lucknow Super Giants to a 209-8 score in 20 overs against the Delhi Capitals in their IPL 2025 season opener at Vizag on Monday. The chase began with two wickets in the first over and DC never recovered thereafter.

Brief score: DC [Ashutosh 66(31)*, Vipraj 39(15); Shardul 2/19 (2)] defeat LSG 209/8 (20) [Pooran 75(30), Marsh 72(36); Starc 3/42(4)] by one wicket

Asked to bat first, the Lucknow Super Giants signalled their intentions early when Mitchell Marsh launched his first ball for the franchise for a massive six against compatriot Mitchell Starc to cap off the first over. Even though Axar Patel tried to pull things back with just 12 runs in his two overs with the new ball, there was no such respite for his Aussie spearhead as the express quick leaked a horrid 21 runs in his ensuing effort -- largely courtesy of Marsh. It took rookie leggie Vipraj Nigam to deliver the first blow for the visitors when Aiden Markram holed out at long-off in the fifth over but Marsh kept going hard at the other end to take the score to 64/1 at the end of the powerplay.

The new batter Nicholas Pooran did not shy away from playing his shots either as he struck three sixes of Nigam as soon as the field restrictions were lifted, in the same over that Marsh brought up his joint-quickest T20 fifty off 50 balls. The partnership kept motoring along rapidly and read a stunning 87 runs off just 42 balls by the time Mukesh Kumar sent Marsh back to the hat for 72 in the 12th over. It made little difference to Pooran though who struck 28 runs off Stubbs to bring up his own fifty but things quickly unravelled thereafter. Kuldeep Yadav spun a web around former skipper Rishabh Pant to send him back for a six-ball duck on his LSG debut before Starc sounded Pooran the death rattle to bring an end to a magnificent knock. Kuldeep further seized momentum back with two more scalps in his final over and it took two lethal strikes from David Miller off the last two balls of the innings to take the score past 200.

In response, Shardul Thakur got his campaign off to a spectacular start by scalping both Jake-Fraser McGurk and Abhishek Porel in the first over itself. Impact Player Manimaran Siddharth added a third powerplay scalp with Sameer Rizvi's wicket in the over next over and DC suddenly found themsleves reeling at 7/3. Axar Patel and Faf du Plessis tried to inject some life back into proceedings with the skipper taking the counterattacking approach, only to end up sweeping rookie spinner Digvesh Rathi straight to short square leg in the fifth over to depart for 22 off 11 balls. It was Faf's time to go seven deliveries later as Ravi Bishnoi opened his tally to the season and the score read a troubled 65/5 after 6.4 overs.

The onus fell on Tristan Stubbs and Ashutosh Sharma to bring the chase back on track and while the duo stitched together 48 runs, the equation still read a daunting 97 off 45 balls when Stubbs departed for 34 off 22, thanks to a magical delivery from Siddharth. That was all the signs Ashutosh needed to jack up the impetus as he went on a stunning boundary spree while wickets kept tumbling at the other end, accelarting from 20 off as many balls to a 28-ball half-century. However, while trying to sneak a bye in the penultimate over, Kuldeep was run out leaving Mohit Sharma as the last man standing with eight balls to go. Fortunately for DC, it was Ashutosh on strike, and he ended the over with a maximum and a four to leave just six required off the final over. Shahbaz Ahmed had the ball in hand for the all-important over, and delivered a magical orthodox delivery first up to bamboozle Mohit but a narrowly missed stumping and LBW meant the contest was still alive. The tailender managed to scramble away a single on his next attempt, and all Ashutosh took was one ball to achieve the improbable off the final delivery.