Mitchell Marsh and Aiden Markram were one of the best opening partnerships of IPL 2025, but LSG decided to mix things up to start the new season, with their captain Rishabh Pant walking out alongside Marsh.

Their association was short-lived, with a deflection off Mukesh Kumar’s hand turning what could have been the caught-and-bowled dismissal of Marsh into the run-out dismissal of Pant at the non-striker’s end in the third over.

That moment came in the middle of a skillful display from Mukesh, who moved the ball around, tied Marsh down by denying him width or anything short, and conceded just 17 runs in three powerplay overs.

Axar Patel came on right after Pant’s dismissal and bowled two powerplay overs himself; this surely wouldn’t have happened if LSG had sent in Pooran to replace the left-handed Pant. Instead, they sent in Markram, and Axar bowled him in his second over, beating an attempted cut with his skid and angle.

LSG lost a third wicket soon after the powerplay, with Ayush Badoni – who walked in ahead of Pooran at No. 4 – nicking off to T Natarajan. LSG were 49 for 3.

After Ngidi sneaked his slower ball through Pooran, Marsh continued to struggle for fluency. He got into the 30s with a slog-swept six off Kuldeep Yadav in the 10th over, but he was beaten in flight while attempting another big hit later in the over, and holed out for 35 off 28.

From there, LSG’s innings was a slow slide to an early finish, with the constant loss of wickets forcing them into a tactical compromise. Shahbaz Ahmed, the left-arm-spin-bowling allrounder, walked in as their Impact Player, and put on the longest partnership of the innings – 26 balls, producing 33 runs – with top-scorer Abdul Samad. While it helped extend the LSG innings, it meant there would be no role in the match for mystery spinner Digvesh Rathi.

LSG were bowled out with eight balls unused, with Ngidi finishing the innings with back-to-back slower-ball wickets in the 19th over.

One of the biggest factors behind LSG’s disappointing 2025 season was a spate of injuries to their fast bowlers. This time around, they began with all their quicks fit, and their resources stretched far enough for them to leave out Mayank Yadav.

The three Indian fast bowlers who played ahead of him all got the new ball to move prodigiously. Shami sent back KL Rahul first ball, caught at deep backward point off a wide outswinger, Mohsin produced seam movement and bounce to have Nitish Rana jabbing to slip, and Prince ripped out Pathum Nissanka and Axar Patel off back-to-back legal deliveries.

Those two wicket balls came in an over that also included three wides, and that was another measure of how much the ball was swinging, in its fifth over. It continued to swing right through the first 10 overs of DC’s chase.

The bowling and conditions put Rizvi – preferred as Impact Player over Karun Nair and Ashutosh Sharma – through the wringer initially. He took 10 balls to get off strike, and was on 5 off 13 when he played his first stroke of any confidence, a ramped six off an Anrich Nortje bouncer.

The smallness of DC’s target allowed Rizvi and Stubbs to just keep batting without needing to take risks. And they knew LSG would have to bowl spin at some point – and that they didn’t have their first-choice spinner, Rathi.

Shahbaz came on in the 10th over, and Rizvi took full control, helped by some poor bowling. Shahbaz strayed down the leg side twice and bowled one long-hop, and Rizvi hit all three balls for four. With 16 coming off that over, DC only needed 65 off the last 10.

Runs continued to come slowly off the fast bowlers – Mohsin, at one stage, had figures of 3-1-6-1 – but DC knew there would be more overs of spin to come. With 49 needed off the last seven overs, LSG brought on Markram, and again Rizvi took charge, launching him for a six down the ground before back-cutting him for four.

With only one possible way back into the game, LSG’s quicks became desperate for wickets. In response, Rizvi and Stubbs put away a series of short balls from Mohsin and Nortje in the 16th and 17th overs to all but seal the game. When Samad came on to bowl the 18th, DC only needed three runs.

Brief scores:
Delhi Capitals 145 for 4 in 17.1 overs (Nitish Rana 15, Sameer Rizvi 70*, Tristan Stubbs 39*; Mohammed Shami 1-28,  Prince Yadav  2-20, Mohsin Khan 1-19) beat Lucknow Super Giants 141 in 18.4 overs  (Abdul Samad 36, Mitchell Marsh 35, Aiden Markram 11, Mukul Choudhary 14, Shabnaz Ahmed 15*;  Lungi Ngidi 3-27, Axar Patel 1-17, Thangarasu Natarajan 3-29, Kuldeep Yadav 2-31) by six wickets

[Cricinfo]