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IPL 2025: Marsh ton, O’Rourke three-for headline Lucknow Super Giant’s big win against table-toppers
Mitchell Marsh scored his maiden IPL hundred, and his second in all T20 cricket, to set the platform for Lucknow Super Giants’ (LSG) 33-run consolation win over Gujarat Titans (GT) in Ahmedabad.
Sent into bat, LSG rode on Marsh’s 117 off 64 balls and Nicholas Pooran’s unbeaten 56 off 27 to post a mammoth 235 for 2 on a high-scoring black-soil surface.
In reply, GT lost Shubman Gill, B Sai Sudarshan and Jos Buttler in 9.3 overs – the earliest that has happened in IPL 2025 – but their largely untested middle order gave LSG a tough fight. Sherfane Rutherford and Shahrukh Khan added 86 in just 40 balls for the fourth wicket.
GT needed 54 in the last four overs with six wickets in hand. But after Will O’Rourke dismissed Rutherford with the first ball of the 17th, the chase petered out. The last four overs produced only 20 and not a single boundary.
The defeat also hurt GT’s chances of a top-two finish.
GT had a slippery start after they won the toss and put LSG in. Arshad Khan slipped twice in his delivery stride in the second over of the innings. Apparently, there was too much grass around the landing area. Two overs later, the ball slipped out of Kagiso Rabada’s hands. Aiden Markram took evasive action but Hawk-Eye deemed it to be a legal delivery. It showed the ball would have been 1.11 metres high at the batting crease, 2cm below Markram’s waist when standing upright. In between, Marsh and Markram had a few mis-hits and also found some boundaries. By the end of the powerplay, LSG had reached 53 for no loss.
With two right-handers in the middle, Gill introduced R Sai Kishore into the attack before Rashid Khan. Marsh hit two sixes off his first eight balls but the spinner broke the 91-run opening stand soon after with Markram’s wicket.
That brought to the crease Pooran and more carnage. He and Marsh added 121 runs in just 52 balls. Rashid came to bowl the 12th over. Before this game, Marsh had scored only 31 off 33 balls against him. Tonight, he went 6, 4, 6, 4, 4, 1 in his first over.
With Pooran in the middle, Gill took the gamble of giving Sai Kishore another over. It did not come off as Pooran farmed the strike and hit the spinner for one six and one four in four balls.
Marsh had taken 33 balls for his first fifty. For his second, he needed only 23. Pooran’s fifty also came in 23 balls. In the final over, Rishabh Pant gave a glimpse of what-if as he hit Rabada for two sixes to finish unbeaten on 16 off six balls.
Coming into this game, Gill, Sai Sudharsan and Buttler had scored 76.87% of GT’s bat runs in the season. In their previous game, Gill and Sai Sudharsan had chased down 200 against Delhi Capitals (DC) on their own. The two once again looked sublime and added 46 in 4.3 overs before Sai Sudharsan chipped O’Rourke to mid-off where Markram dived forward to take a low catch.
Buttler hit two fours and two sixes off Avesh Khan in the sixth over to keep the momentum going. But in his next over, Avesh had Gill slicing one to Abdul Samad at wide long-off for another excellent catch.
Two overs later, Buttler was also back in the pavilion. Akash Singh, who had split his webbing earlier, returned with a heavily strapped right hand and breached Buttler’s defence with a slower one. Akash dedicated the wicket to Digvesh Rathi by bringing out the notebook celebration. After ten overs, GT were 97 for 3 and needed 139 more in the remaining ten.
Before this game, GT’s middle order (Nos. 4-7) had the lowest average (21.39) in the league but also the highest strike rate (165.65). In a way, it was a corollary of their prosperous top order. On Thursday, however, GT did not want their middle order to just flash. They wanted them to keep the fire burning.
Rutherford and Shahrukh did exactly that. They smashed three fours and three sixes to ransack 36 runs from overs 14th and 15th, bowled by Avesh and Shahbaz Ahmed, respectively. LSG were still the favourites but GT were also in with a fair chance. O’Rourke then dealt the decisive blow. He conceded only four in the 17th over and bookended it with the wickets of Rutherford and Rahul Tewatia. Shahrukh, who had brought up his fifty off 22 balls, swung hard but kept losing his shape as LSG seized control.
Brief scores:
Lucknow Super Giants 235 for 2 in 20 overs (Aiden Markram 36, Mitchell Marsh 117, Nicholas Pooran 56*, Rishab Pant 16*; Arshad Khan 1-36, Sai Kishore 1-34) beat Gujarat Titans 202 for 9 in 20 overs (Sai Sudarshan 21, Shubman Gill 35, Joss Buttler 33, M Shahrukh Khan 57, Sherfane Rutherford 38; Akash Singh 1-29, Will O’Rourke 3-27, Avesh Khan 2-51, Shahbaz Ahmad 1-41 Ayush Badoni 2-04)by 33 runs
[Cricinfo]
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Flood warning issued to the Divisional Secretariat Divisions of Ganga Ihala Korale, Udapalatha, Doluwa, Udunuwara, Yatinuwara, Gangawata Korale, Harispattuwa, and Pathadumbara
Due to heavy rainfall received in the upper catchment areas of the Mahaweli River over the past few hours, there is a risk of minor flooding in the low-lying areas surrounding the Mahaweli River within the Divisional Secretariat Divisions of Ganga Ihala Korale, Udapalatha, Doluwa, Udunuwara, Yatinuwara, Gangawata Korale, Harispattuwa, and Pathadumbara.Residents living in the above mentioned areas and motorists using roads passing through these areas are urged to exercise extreme caution and remain highly vigilant regarding the prevailing situation.
Furthermore, residents living in close proximity to the Mahaweli River in these areas are advised to remain highly alert to the situation and take all necessary precautions to protect themselves from any potential flooding.The relevant disaster management authorities are requested to take all necessary measures in response to this situation.
The National Building Research Organisation [NBRO] has issued landslide Red Alerts to the districts of Kandy, Kegalle and Nuwara Eliya effective from 14:00 hrs on 20.09.2026 To 14:00 hrs on 21.09.2026
Accordingly,
LEVEL III [RED] Land Slide early warnings have been issued to the Divisional Secretaries Divisions and surrounding areas of Pasbage Korale in the Kandy district, Dehiowita, Aranayake, Deraniyagala, Mawanella and Yatiyanthota in the Kegalle district and Kothmale West, Kotmale East, Ambagamuwa and Norwood in the Nuwara Eliya district
LEVEL II [AMBER] Land Slide early warnings have been issued to the Divisional Secretaries Divisions and surrounding areas of Padukka in the Colombo district, Nagoda, Thawalama and Neluwa in the Galle district, Bulathsinhala, Palindanuwara, Walallawita and Agalawatta in the Kalutara district, Ganga Ihala Korale in the Kandy district, Bulathkohupitiya and Kegalle in the Kegalle district, Akuressa and Pitabeddara in the Matara district, Thalawakele in the Nuwara Eliya district and Pelmadulla, Ratnapura, Ayagama, Kuruwita and Ratnapura in the Ratnapura district.
LEVEL I [YELLOW] Land Slide early warnings have been issued to the Divisional Secretaries Divisions and surrounding areas of Seethawaka in the Colombo district, Niyagama and Baddegama in the Galle district, Mirigama in the Gampaha district, Ingiriya in the Kalutara district, Udapalatha and Yatinuwara in the Kandy district, Galigamuwa, Warakapola and Ruwanwella in the Kegalle district, Kotapola, Pasgoda and Athuraliya in the Matara district, and Eheliyagoda, Kalawana and Elapatha in the Ratnapura district.
A 49-ball unbeaten hundred from Shafali Verma and three-wicket hauls apiece for Nandani Sharma and Deeoti Sharma helped India march into the final of the 2026 Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya.
Batting first in Nisshin against Bangladesh, India posted 195 for 4, with Shafali bringing up her maiden white-ball international hundred off the final ball of the innings. She pummelled nine sixes and three fours in an innings that left Bangladesh needing a record chase to reach the final.
Smriti Mandhana gave India a rapid start with a 19-ball 37, during which she became the leading run-scorer in women’s T20Is, while Harmanpreet Kaur found some form with a 33-ball 40 from No. 4.
India’s innings began with a 36-ball opening stand of 72, with Shafali setting the pace by smashing 34 off her first 17 deliveries, while Mandhana initially played second fiddle before gaining pace. G Kamalini, at No. 3, failed to make use of another opportunity, while Richa Ghosh made only two. Harmanpreet started sluggishly, as she has tended to in the recent past, but overcame those early struggles to land some lusty blows towards the end of the innings. She added 94 off 55 balls with Shafali for the third wicket.
Bangladesh never seriously threatened the target. Dilara Akter made 27 at the top of the order, but opening partner Juairiya Ferdous was dismissed for a duck and Bangladesh’s Nos. 3 to 5 were unable to get going. Sultana Khatun, batting at No. 9, was their second-highest scorer with just 12.
Nandani got the first wicket in the second over after which fellow new-ball bowler Kranti Gaud delivered a second blow in the third over. Shree Charani then sent Nigar Sultana back in the final over of the powerplay to leave Bangladesh at 38 for 3.
There was no way in as Bangladesh failed to get any partnership going and a double-wicket 11th over from Nandani exposed the tail. Deepti then trapped Marufa Akter lbw and had Sanjida Akter holing out in the 16th over to complete the resounding win.
India will now face Sri Lanka in the gold-medal match, a repeat of the final from 2023. Bangladesh will meet Pakistan for the bronze-medal fixture.
Scores:
India Women 195 for 4 in 20 overs (Smriti Mandhana 37, Shafali Verma 100*, Harmanpreet Kaur 40: Marufa Akter 1-43, Sanjida Akter Meghla 1-25, Rabeya Khan 1-35, Nahida Akter 1-45) beat Bangladesh Women 81 in 15.4 overs (Dilara Akter 27, Sharmin Akhter 10, Sultana Khatun 12*; Kranti Gaud 1-20, Nandani Sharma 3-25. Shree Charani 2-07, Shreyanka Patil 1-22, Deepti Sharma 3-07) by 114 runs
[Cricinfo]
Flood warning issued to the Divisional Secretariat Divisions of Ganga Ihala Korale, Udapalatha, Doluwa, Udunuwara, Yatinuwara, Gangawata Korale, Harispattuwa, and Pathadumbara
Landslide Red Alerts issued to the districts of Kandy, Kegalle and Nuwara Eliya
Shafali dazzles with 49-ball unbeaten 100 and India march into Asian Games final
Development projects can deliver results to the people more quickly when the political authority and the public service work together towards a common goal – PM
Landslide Early Warnings issued to the Districts of Colombo, Galle, Kalutara, Kandy, Kegalle, Matara, Nuwara Eliya and Ratnapura
Chamari Athapaththu’s unbeaten 83 leads Sri Lanka into final
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