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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]
West Indies suffered another batting collapse against New Zealand’s spinners in Guyana as the visitors took a 2-1 lead in the ODI series with a six-wicket victory, although Vitel Lawes continued his impressive start to international cricket to ensure they had to work for it in the chase.
Jayden Lennox followed his five-wicket haul in the second match with 4 for 52 – meaning he equaled the most wickets for a New Zealand spinner in a bilateral ODI series – as West Indies lost 6 for 19, to fall from 121 for 3 to 140 for 9, which brought the end of their innings after John Campbell had been forced to retire hurt with what appeared a hamstring injury. An unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 52 between Tom Latham and Dean Foxcroft then ensured New Zealand overcame a wobble to ease across the line.
On the same pitch that was used for the opening game of the series, batting was rarely a simple prospect even if the turn on offer wasn’t quite as lavish off the surface for the previous match.
Will Young and Henry Nicholls played carefully through the powerplay, the latter left grateful for the DRS on two occasions when given lbw against Gudakesh Motie and Alzarri Joseph. But Lawes’ introduction put a different complexion on the chase when he skidded one through to take Nicholls’ off stump with his second delivery.
Mark Chapman was then beaten on the inside edge as he played forward to fall lbw and Young drove a wide delivery to cover to leave New Zealand 77 for 3. Although Lawes still served up the occasional loose delivery – understandable for a 19-year-old in his third professional game – his control has improved markedly even in the short space of time of this series.
The game felt even more in the balance when Daryl Mitchell was beaten by Khary Pierre but the pressure was eased when Lawes returned for his eight over and two full tosses were cashed in on by Latham and Foxcroft. However, had West Indies reviewed for lbw against Foxcroft when he had 9, Lawes would have had a fourth wicket in his final over with 33 still needed. The umpire gave it as a run, and Foxcroft was down the pitch, but replays confirmed there was no edge and ball-tracking projected it hitting half way up leg stump. From there, New Zealand did not have too many further problems in finishing the job.
West Indies were twice handily placed with the bat before it all fell apart in an almost action-replay of the previous game. Campbell had retired hurt in the sixth over after he collapsed on the ground having sprinted through for a single and was stretchered off, then Ackeem Auguste gave away a promising start when he was brilliantly held by Mitchell Santner running back from mid-off.
However, the hosts were 67 for 1 in the 17th over when Shai Hope was beaten by Lennox’s arm ball for the second game in a row. Three overs later, Sherfane Rutherford top edged a reverse sweep to deep point. Keacy Carty worked hard to give himself a base and alongside the recalled Shimron Hetmyer, playing his first ODI since last June, took West Indies to 121 for 3 with Hetmyer having twice cleared the leg side against Lennox. Hetmyer’s inclusion after MLC had been so rushed that his kit hadn’t arrived.
The collapse started when Carty was beaten by a delivery from Michael Bracewell which turned to take the back pad for an lbw and Hetmyer, trying to hit a third six, picked out deep square leg in Bracewell’s next over to expose the lower order.
Lennox produced a couple of excellent deliveries to bowl Motie and Joseph – particularly the arm ball that curved past Motie’s outside edge – as he turned figures of 1 for 49 after eight overs into 4 for 52 from his 10 with West Indies’ last six wickets falling in 51 balls. They will now need to win both matches in Barbados to claim the series.
Scores:
New Zealand 141 for 4 in 39.3 overs (Tom Latham 31*;Vitel Lawes 3-39) beat West Indies 140 in 37.1 overs (Keacy Carty 48; Jayden Lennox 4-52) by six wickets
[Cricinfo]
It has been reported that former Inspector General of Police (IGP) C.D. Wickramaratne has been found dead at his residence in Athurugiriya this morning (17)
it is suspected that he may have taken his own life.
Aiden Markram, Laura Wolvaardt and Simon Harmer were the biggest winners at the Cricket South Africa (CSA) Awards 2026, picking up the highest individual honours after stellar seasons across formats. Fast bowler Lungi Ngidi and wicketkeeper-batter Quinton de Kock also went home with multiple awards.
Harmer, 37, was named Test Player of the Year after spearheading South Africa’s red-ball attack during the awards cycle, between April 2025 and 2026. The offspinner enjoyed a prolific return in this period, where he took 30 wickets in four matches. After taking eight wickets in the Rawalpindi Test against Pakistan to help draw the series, he led South Africa to a famous series sweep against India with match hauls of 8 for 51 and 9 for 101 in Kolkata and Guwahati respectively.
Wolvaardt, meanwhile, continued to set the benchmark in women’s cricket. South Africa’s captain was named the Women’s Player of the Year, SA Women’s Players’ Player of the Year and Women’s ODI Player of the Year, completing the awards sweep. Across the eligibility period, she piled up runs in all conditions and played a key role in South Africa’s run to the ODI World Cup final in 2025, finishing as the top scorer of the tournament with 571 runs at an average of 71.37, including centuries in the semi-final and final. Wolvaardt was South Africa’s leading run-scorer in the ODI series in New Zealand before dominating the home T20I series against India, where she scored 330 runs in five matches and was named Player of the Series.
The biggest winner among the men’s all-format awards was Markram, who claimed both the SA Men’s Player of the Year and SA Men’s Players’ Player of the Year awards, after a season in which he led South Africa to major success across formats, most noticeably in the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia last year.
Ngidi, meanwhile, collected the Men’s T20 International Player of the Year award and the SA Fans’ Player of the Year prize. His dismissal of Jos Buttler during South Africa’s second ODI against England was also voted the Best Men’s Delivery of the year.
Matthew Breetzke’s breakthrough campaign earned him the Men’s ODI International Player of the Year award, while Dewald Brevis and Kayla Reyneke were recognised as the International Men’s and Women’s Newcomers of the Year, respectively.
The SA20 awards reflected the competition’s standout performers. De Kock, the tournament’s leading run-scorer, was named both SA20 Batter of the Season and Betway SA20 Player of the Season (MVP). Ottneil Baartman collected the SA20 Bowler of the Season award after finishing as the leading wicket-taker, while Jordan Hermann was named SA20 Rising Star of the Season.
Among the domestic awards, Kyle Simmonds and Mignon du Preez were named the men’s and women’s Most Valuable Players, while Robin Peterson, JP Triegaardt and Sandile Masengemi received the top coaching honours in their respective competitions.
CSA also recognised contributions beyond performances on the field. Arno Jacobs was named CSA Umpires’ Umpire of the Year, Lubabalo Gcuma received the CSA Umpire of the Year award, and Sinalo Jafta was presented with the Makhaya Ntini Power of Cricket Award.
[Cricinfo]
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