Ashutosh Sharma with ice running through his veins, smashed Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) bowlers to bits to hand Delhi Capitals the first win of their IPL 2025 campaign in their adopted home Visakhapatnam. Sharma took his time before launching an attack on the LSG bowlers as he picked and chose his battles and came up trumps despite losing his partners at the other end continuously.
Chasing 210, the Capitals found themselves 7/3 in the run-chase and then 65/5 before Sharma was brought in as the impact player. The likes of Tristan Stubbs and Vipraj Nigam did their bit to keep the Delhi Capitals' hopes alive to sneak home, Sharma's calculative launch of the attack was the clincher but the Super Giants had a couple of chances snuffed to dismiss Ashutosh cheaply.
It was a difficult chance but Rishabh Pant, the LSG skipper and the wicketkeeper, missed the catch on 14.6, off Shahbaz Ahamad's delivery. An over later, with Vipraj Nigam dismissed, leg-spinner Digvesh Rathi had the opportunity to run Ashutosh out at the non-striker's end before bowling the second ball of his over and first one to Mitchell Starc.
With the lower order out in the middle now, Ashutosh had to take the full responsibility of finishing the game and hence, was eager to get back on strike. Ashutosh left his crease at the non-striker early multiple times and Rathi actually had the opportunity to do him away but instead chose to leave him with a warning. Since the mode of dismissal is legit, it was a surprise that Rathi chose to leave him with just a warning as Ashutosh's wicket at that point could have potentially ended the game.
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After which, Rathi timed his attack to the T, smashing six, four and six against Ravi Bishnoi in the next over and ended the 19th over, bowled by Prince Yadav with six and four, leaving one big shot to be hit in the final over to send the Delhi Capitals' dugout and fans into a frenzy. After having not finished the games for Punjab Kings despite playing a couple of similar knocks last year, this was Ashutosh's moment in the sun.