HYDERABAD, India (AP) and Staff Writer – Lucknow Super Giants defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by 5 wickets in the Indian Premier League 2025. Chasing 191, Nicholas Pooran and Mitchell Marsh hit blistering fifties. Pooran, in particular, went hard against spinners and pacers. The southpaw hit Abhishek Sharma and Adam Zampa for fours and sixes.
Earlier, Shardul Thakur had taken the sting out of Hyderabad’s explosive top-order batting lineup with the wickets of Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan, who had scored a century against Rajasthan Royals last weekend.
Nicholas Pooran was placed perfectly at deep square leg, and Abhishek fell in the trap of a short ball while Kishan feathered a leg-side catch of the first ball he faced off the fast bowler before Nitish Kumar Reddy survived the hat-trick ball.
Travis Head didn’t get bogged down with the fall of two early wickets and made 47 off 28 balls but couldn’t capitalize on a dropped catch before he was clean-bowled by Prince Yadav (1-29) in the eighth over.
Hyderabad struggled to put up partnerships thereafter despite Aniket Verma smashing five sixes in his brisk 36-run knock off 13 balls as Thakur claimed two more wickets in his return spell to pin down Hyderabad at the same venue where it amassed 286 runs against Rajasthan last Sunday.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Kaif slammed SRH captain Pat Cummins for his tactical errors in the contest. Cummins gave the fifth over of the LSG run chase to Abhishek Sharma despite knowing Pooran would go after him. He hit two sixes on the fifth and sixth deliveries of Abhishek’s over, which allowed him to settle down. Kaif didn’t understand the logic of Cummins holding himself back when LSG batters started dominating the bowlers.
Pat introduced himself in the sixth over, and Nicholas struck him for two boundaries.
“Not impressive captaincy by Pat Cummins. He gave the fifth over to Abhishek Sharma, which allowed Pooran to get settled. The SRH captain should have brought himself earlier, but he waited till the sixth over. He made these two mistakes,” he said,
Kaif then highlighted the turning point of the match. “Heinrich Klaasen’s wicket was the turning point of the match as he can hit sixes. He would have taken the score to 230-235,” he added.