Nicholas Pooran did what Nicholas Pooran does – tonk the ball around the park. He continued his blazing run in IPL 2025 against Gujarat Titans. Fourth fifty came in under 24 balls, this one took 23 balls.
He had Aiden Markram for company who took 26 balls for his half century as LSG chased 181 runs at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium.
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Together they put together 58 runs for the second-wicket. Before them, it was Markram and Rishabh Pant who had taken the onus for a much-needed strong start on a surface that wasn’t conducive for a big score.
It was billed as the battle of the top-orders. With Mitchell Marsh not making the playing XI, Pant stepped into the T20 opener slot for the first time in three years and first time in nine years in the IPL.
Pant faltered once again but Pooran didn’t. Markram also had a strong day. Impact Player Ayush Badoni and Abdul Samad held their nerves in the closing stages.
Over in the first innings, Gujarat Titans powered to 54/0 in the powerplay overs courtesy Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan. The visitors romped to the 100-run mark even before the halfway stage.
Until the ninth over, LSG had conceded a boundary in each over. The first 10 overs saw just 11 dot balls. By the 11th over, both Gill and Sudharsan had marked their fifty milestones in 31 and 32 balls, respectively.
After 12 overs, LSG were 120/0 and cruising towards a big total. Gill and Sudharsan were both in good touch but that came crashing down in the next eight overs.
In the span of two overs, GT lost Gill, Sudharsan and Washington Sundar with Avesh Khan and Ravi Bishnoi picking the wickets.
To change the course of the match, the runs dried up too. With set batters out of the picture and into the dugout, the focus shifted to the new batters who failed to get going on a challenging surface.
Bishnoi conceded just four in his final over to post figures of 4-0-36-2. Digvesh Rathi, who accounted for Jos Buttler’s wicket, was also economical (4-0-30-1). As were the seamers Avesh Khan (1/32) and Shardul Thakur (2/34).
In the last eight overs, LSG conceded all of 60 runs with the most, 12 runs, coming off Avesh Khan’s penultimate over.
In the post-match presentation, Gill conceded one of the set batters needed to stick around until the closing stages if they were to post a bigger total.
“The wicket wasn’t easy to hit from the get-go and this was the conversation that if there’s one batsman set we have to play 17-18 overs so we can get to 200-210,” said Gill at the post match presentation ceremony.
“Losing back-to-back wickets didn’t help our cause. When we were batting, the ball was stopping; it wasn’t an easy wicket from the first ball. Our strike rotation wasn’t as good as expected and that’s something we have to work on,” added the GT skipper.
Get the latest IPL 2025 updates on Times of India, including match schedules, team squads, points table and IPL live score for CSK, MI, RCB, KKR, SRH, LSG, DC, GT, PBKS, and RR. Don’t miss the list of players in the race for IPL Orange Cap and IPL Purple cap.
