In the IPL 2025 match, Ashutosh Sharma’s unbeaten 66 off 31 balls led the Delhi Capitals to a nail-biting win over Lucknow Super Giants by just one wicket at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium. After the game, captain Rishabh Pant acknowledged that his team felt the pressure and lost control at times but praised Ashutosh and Vipraj Nigam for their key partnership that flipped the match in their favor.
Chasing a target of 210, DC got off to a rough start, losing three wickets for only eight runs. Things got worse when Faf du Plessis and Axar Patel, who were stabilizing the innings, got out, leaving the team at 85 for 5. With the required run rate climbing, it looked like they were in trouble. Pant remarked, “I think we had enough runs on the board. The batters did well. We lost some momentum, but it was a decent score for this wicket. As a team, we’re looking to find positives in every match and learn from it. If we get the basics right, we’ll improve.”
That’s when Ashutosh stepped up. He was on 20 off 20 balls with a high required rate, but then he exploded, scoring 46 off just 11 balls. Vipraj Nigam also contributed significantly with 39 off 15 balls before getting out to Digvesh Rathi. Ashutosh kept the pressure on, finishing the game with a six off Shahbaz Ahmed, clinching the win for DC with three balls left.
Pant commented on the partnerships that helped LSG, saying, “As the ball got older, it became easier for the bowlers, but we needed to execute the basics better. We were feeling the pressure. It’s early in the tournament, and we are still finding our rhythm. Luck played a part; if that ball hadn’t hit his pad, it could’ve been a different story.” Earlier, LSG posted a strong total of 209 for 8, largely thanks to Nicholas Pooran’s 75 and Mitchell Marsh’s 72. They looked set for 250 at one point, but DC’s bowlers tightened up, giving away only 49 runs in the last seven overs while taking seven wickets.