Ashutosh Sharma put on an incredible batting show as the Delhi Capitals pulled off a nail-biting one-wicket victory against the Lucknow Super Giants in their IPL 2025 match on Monday. Chasing a target of 210, DC found themselves in a tough spot but Ashutosh came through with an impressive 66 runs off just 31 balls to secure the win. After the match, LSG captain Rishabh Pant had a serious talk with coach Justin Langer and team owner Sanjiv Goenka. This sparked a wave of memes on social media, with some folks even joking about the past awkward chat between Goenka and former captain KL Rahul after a tough loss in IPL 2024 that stirred up a lot of buzz.
During the game, Ashutosh, playing his first match for Delhi, helped pull his team back from a struggling position at 65-5 to chase down the target with three balls to spare in Visakhapatnam. Needing 22 runs off the last two overs and six off the final six balls with just one wicket in hand, Ashutosh stood tall and hit the winning six.
Delhi started off shaky at 7-3 in the second over, and after losing half their side for just 65 runs, Faf du Plessis was out for 29 in his debut for the franchise. New captain Axar Patel contributed a quick 22 runs, while Tristan Stubbs added 34. After the win, Axar smiled and said, “Get ready for more of this under my captaincy. It’ll be a bit up and down.”
When Stubbs got bowled by Manimaran Siddharth after hitting two sixes, the situation looked grim for Delhi at 113-6, needing 97 runs with just over seven overs left. But Ashutosh and IPL newbie Vipraj Nigam, who scored 39 off 15 balls, changed the game around with a partnership of 55 runs off just 22 balls. Nigam got out in the 17th over, and Lucknow took two more wickets, but Ashutosh made sure to prove Kevin Pietersen, the new mentor, right. Pietersen had said during the break that Ashutosh would pull something off.
Last year, Ashutosh had a great run with the Punjab Kings as a finisher, but he played it safe at first this game, scoring just 20 from his first 20 balls. As wickets fell around him, he opened up and hit 46 runs off his last 11 deliveries. With six runs needed in the final over, number 11 Mohit Sharma just avoided getting stumped after the ball nicked his pad while stepping out. Lucknow’s Pant couldn’t grab it cleanly, and the batters got a single off the next ball, setting things up for Ashutosh to close out the game with his fifth six off Shahbaz Ahmed.