Ashutosh Sharma pulled off a heist for Delhi Capitals in their Indian Premier League 2025 opener against Lucknow Super Giants at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam on Monday, March 24. With their backs against the wall in a 210-run chase, Ashutosh Sharma and Vipraj Nigam put up a strong partnership to take DC close, before the former took the Capitals home in a famous one-wicket win.
Ashutosh slammed 66 from 31 balls in a brilliant innings under pressure to snatch the victory from the jaws of defeat. DC were done and dusted when they were 65/5 in the seventh over in the tall chase. However, the impact sub Ashutosh, Tristan Stubbs and debutant Vipraj Nigam didn't give up. Stubbs and Ashutosh put up a 48-run stand to bring the Capitals back in the hunt, but just when things began to go well for the Capitals with the two sixes from the South African, he lost his wicket to Manimaran Siddharth after a change of ball.
DC were in trouble once again and the game looked gone as they still needed 97 from 45 balls with Ashutosh and the unknown Vipraj in the middle. But the spin-bowling hitter announced himself in style as he slammed a crucial 39 off 15 balls in a 55-run stand that brought them back again. However, the game swung again when Vipraj was caught out in the 17th over after the time-out.
Ravi Bishnoi came and got Mitchell Starc, but Ashutosh lined him up for two sixes and a four, before taking Prince Yadav in the next over. With six needed in the final over of Shahbaz Ahmed, LSG skipper Rishabh Pant missed a stumping chance against Mohit Sharma before the batters took a single off the next ball. Ashutosh then slammed a six on the fuller one from Shahbaz to take the team home.
Lucknow Super Giants put up 209/8 on the board batting first. Mitchell Marsh and Nicholas Pooran hit blistering fifties as they put up a strong platform for a solid finish. However, the Capitals struck and broke the strong momentum. From 161/2, LSG went down to 177/6. However, David Miller slammed two sixes off the final two balls to push LSG to 209/8.
Delhi Capitals' Playing XI:
Jake Fraser-McGurk, Faf du Plessis, Abishek Porel (wk), Sameer Rizvi , Axar Patel (c), Tristan Stubbs, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohit Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Ashutosh Sharma
Lucknow Super Giants' Playing XI:
Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Rishabh Pant (c & wk), David Miller, Prince Yadav, Digvesh Rathi, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, Ravi Bishnoi, Manimaran Siddharth
More to follow...