Rishabh Pant (68 not out) delivered a masterclass in captaincy after fast bowler Mohammed Shami worked his wizardry, guiding Lucknow Super Giants to an easy five-wicket victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Sunday’s IPL clash. Shami (2/9) landed early punches, sending back the opening pair of Abhishek Sharma (0) and Travis Head (7), which proved vital in keeping SRH down to 156 for nine. Heinrich Klaasen (62 off 41 deliveries) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (56 off 33 deliveries) built a massive 116-run partnership for the fifth wicket to push SRH to a respectable score. Aiden Markram (45) and Pant weathered the SRH bowling storm, with the captain showing remarkable restraint by keeping his usual big-hitting tendencies in check. Shami And pant Surprised SRH To Get Solid Victory
TOSS
Lucknow Super Giants claimed the toss and chose to bowl first.
PLAYING XI
Lucknow Super Giants (Playing XI):
Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Abdul Samad, Mukul Choudhary, Manimaran Siddharth, Avesh Khan, Mohammed Shami, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Prince Yadav
Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI):
Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan(w/c), Heinrich Klaasen, Liam Livingstone, Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Shivang Kumar, Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat
SUNRISERS HYDERABAD
The experienced Mohammed Shami practically gift-wrapped this victory during the powerplay like he was Santa Claus in cricket whites. He delivered five perfect yorkers swinging toward leg stump to both Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, keeping them as quiet as library mice before unleashing a sneaky off-cutter outside off to bamboozle the Indian opener. This became his signature move to send Head packing in the next over too, giving LSG a dream start that was better than finding extra fries at the bottom of the bag. Shami continued his magic show for a third consecutive powerplay over, posting incredible figures of 3-0-7-2 before being called back in the ninth over to complete his spell. He responded by giving away just two more runs before taking a well-deserved break.
Rewinding to the first innings, LSG maintained their stranglehold on the match even after the powerplay when Digvesh Rathi showed Liam Livingstone the exit door. At the halfway point, SRH had managed only 35 runs with four star players already watching from the dugout like disappointed spectators. But the game took a dramatic U-turn as Heinrich Klaasen and Nitish Reddy decided to throw caution to the wind and put on a fireworks display that would make New Year’s Eve jealous. After launching a six each off Prince Yadav to announce their intentions, the duo became absolutely ruthless. Klaasen found the rope four times against Avesh Khan while Nitish responded with three massive sixes off Digvesh that probably needed a passport. By the 15th over’s conclusion, SRH had climbed to 114/4. Twenty more runs flowed in the next two overs with both batsmen reaching their half-centuries faster than a pizza delivery. From that position, SRH must have been dreaming of crossing 175, but LSG had other plans and struck back with a wicket avalanche at the death to slam the brakes harder than a driving instructor.
LUCKNOW SUPER GIANTS
The brilliant idea of opening with Pant lasted about as long as a chocolate teapot – just one match, and thankfully so. With both Aiden Markram and Mitchell Marsh piling on 500-plus runs each last season, they were reunited like a successful comedy duo. Despite Harsh Dubey making a promising start in the opening over, Markram and Marsh ganged up on Nitish for three boundaries in the next over, kickstarting the chase like a motorcycle on a Sunday morning. Marsh then spooned one directly to the boundary fielder (oops!), but Markram kept the momentum alive by smashing Unadkat for multiple boundaries and a six that probably landed in another zip code. By the halfway stage, the doors seemed firmly shut as LSG had raced to 81 runs. When Pant hammered Shivang Kumar for consecutive boundaries in the 12th over, it looked like game over for the home team.
Everything changed when Dubey and Kumar struck in back-to-back overs to dismiss Ayush Badoni and the explosive Nicholas Pooran, suddenly making things more interesting than a reality TV show finale. This created genuine pressure on the chasing team, with SRH also bowling dot deliveries to sneakily push the required run rate higher than a skyscraper. While Pant and Abdul Samad broke free with some boundaries in the following overs, Dubey’s final over became crucial as he bowled multiple dots before removing Samad like a magician pulling a rabbit from a hat. Then Harshal Patel decided to turn up the heat on young Mukul Choudhary. His trademark dipping full tosses proved trickier to handle than a greased watermelon for the 21-year-old, with Pant watching helplessly from the other end. Finally, when it came down to 9 runs from 6 balls, Pant stepped up like a superhero and guided his team across the finish line.
Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 156/9 in 20 overs (Heinrich Klaasen 62, Nitish Reddy 56; Mohammed Shami 2/9, Prince Yadav 2/34) lost to Lucknow Super Giants 160/5 in 19.5 overs (Rishabh Pant 68*, Aiden Markram 45; Harsh Dubey 2/18) by 5 wickets.
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