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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]
Will India and Pakistan face each other on February 15 in Colombo?
Even as that question hangs heavy like the thick and suffocating Mumbai smog over the T20 World Cup 2026, Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav said his team will travel to Colombo whether the match happens or not.
“Our Mindset is pretty clear,” Suryakumar said at the captains’ media briefing on Thursday in Mumbai. “We did not refuse to play them. The refusal came from them (Pakistan). ICC organised the fixture. BCCI and the Indian government decided to play in neutral venue in coordination with ICC. Our flight to Colombo is booked. So we are going. We’ll see what happens later.”
Defending champions India begin their World Cup campaign on the opening day – February 7 – against USA in Mumbai. India start as firm favourites based on their phenomenal domination in the format in this World Cup cycle. Suryakumar’s team provided further evidence of that on Monday evening in Navi Mumbai where they nudged aside South Africa in the warm-up match. Such form has allowed Suryakumar to be more relaxed and light-hearted during media briefings and same was the case on Thursday.
Asked what the mood in the Indian dressing room was around the Pakistan match, Suryakumar said: “The discussion in the team is ekdum (absolutely) clear. First we play the match on February 7, then we will head to Delhi (Namibia on February 12) and then we will travel to Colombo.”
Suryakumar’s is the first formal response from the India side on the topic, and comes a day after Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his government had taken a “cons8dered stance” on boycotting the India match and did not want “politics in sport”.
This is the second time in six months Suryakumar has found himself facing questions on how India-Pakistan matches were getting impacted due to the fraught political relations between the two nations, after the Asia Cup controversy last year. The BCCI had instructed the Indian team then to not shake hands with the Pakistan team, at the behest of the Indian government. India then refused to receive the Asia Cup trophy after winning the tournament from ACC president and PCB chairman Mohsin Naqvi, who also declined to hand over the trophy.
Suryakumar said he could not do much about the current situation apart from turning up with his team in Colombo.
“Pakistan’s decision is not in my control,” he said. “I wish I could take that decision. But then it’s their (Pakistan) call. We’ve been told that we have to play on the 15th. We played the Asia Cup, we played three times. We played some good cricket against them. We won. We were happy. And, similarly, if we get an opportunity again in Colombo we will definitely play our game.
“I feel it is not an easy job. I’m sure they must be working out something. But if the boycott has come from the other government or the nation, how can… It is a difficult call for them as well. I know it’ll be a difficult situation. But, as I said, if we are told and the fixtures are ready we will definitely go ahead and play.”
(Cricinfo)
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Delhi Capital’s fourth shot at elusive trophy as Royal Challengers Bengaluru look to make winning a habit
The grand finale of WPL 2026 carries a distinct India-South Africa flavour, much like the World Cup final two months ago. But the epicenter is Vadodara and not Navi Mumbai, the traditional home of Indian women’s cricket. However, that won’t make the occasion any less special.
The marquee names line up symmetrically. Shafali Verma and Jemimah Rodrigues on one side; Smriti Mandhana and Richa Ghosh on the other. Marizanne Kapp and Laura Wolvaardt on one side, Nadine de Klerk on the other.
Threading between these big stars are two high-impact overseas allrounders from West Indies and Australia, each having contributed to their team’s journey to the final in their own way.
Chinelle Henry has been an unheralded star for Delhi Capitals (DC). Her three-for in the Eliminator may have gone unnoticed in the larger scheme of things, but it was as important as Shafali and Lizelle Lee’s opening stand or Rodrigues’ cameo. For Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), Grace Harris has filled an even larger void. In Ellyse Perry’s absence, she has become the powerplay enforcer, dominating attacks and setting up games for the likes of Ghosh and de Klerk to finish.
The prospect of these two sides pitted against each other in the final seemed an unlikely prospect even during the auction. Mumbai Indians appeared the obvious front runners, having retained the core that delivered two titles in three seasons.
RCB, meanwhile, were without Perry, and when they opted to replace her with an uncapped Indian fast bowler in Sayali Satghare, fully aware that Pooja Vastrakar would be unavailable for much of the season, the knives were out. Satghare has since become a key strand in RCB’s seam attack.
Thursday’s final also brings a contrast to their journeys to the final. RCB took the route DC did for three seasons running – winning six out of their eight games to top the group. DC have scraped through a sequence of must-win games and will now play their third knockout in five days.
DC are chasing that elusive fourth attempt at glory to help bring silverware to a franchise that is yet to win a major; RCB is looking at making winning titles a habit, attempting a hat-trick of wins (IPL included).
In each of the three previous finals, the winner of the Eliminator has gone on to win the title. Will Thursday be any different?
RCB are likely to back Vastrakar to play as a specialist batter. While she has begun bowling in the nets, a call has been taken to ease her in, given she has returned to competitive cricket after 15 months. Arundhati Reddy’s lack of form is the only other area of concern that could potentially bring in legspinner Prema Rawat into the equation.
RCB (probable): Smriti Mandhana (capt), Grace Harris, Georgia Voll, Richa Ghosh (wk), Radha Yadav, Nadine de Klerk, Pooja Vastrakar, Shreyanka Patil, Sayali Satghare, Arundhati Reddy/Prema Rawat, Lauren Bell
DC are likely to be unchanged. In fact the 13 players they’ve used this season are the fewest resources a team has used across four WPL seasons.
DC (probable): Shafali Verma, Lizelle Lee (wk), Laura Wolvaardt, Jemimah Rodrigues (capt), Marizanne Kapp, Chinelle Henry, Niki Prasad, Sneh Rana, Minnu Mani, Nandani Sharma, N Shree Charani
[Cricinfo]
‘Our flight is booked, we’re going’: Suryakumar on India vs Pakistan
Captain’s knock helps Petes
Delhi Capital’s fourth shot at elusive trophy as Royal Challengers Bengaluru look to make winning a habit
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