IPL 2025 LSG vs MI | Super Giants hold nerve at the crunch, edge Mumbai Indians in a nail-biter

Marsh and Markram power the home side to a record total at Ekana; Hardik’s all-round show in vain; Digvesh, Shardul and Avesh come good with the ball

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) trapped Mumbai Indians (MI) in a death-overs squeeze to secure a 12-run win from a seemingly lost position in IPL 2025 at the Ekana Stadium here on Friday.

The 204-run target was not out of sight for MI when Hardik Pandya dispatched a full toss from Avesh Khan over the long-off fence off the first ball of the final over.

But Avesh hitting the block hole at will meant the visitor could only add three more off the remaining five deliveries and succumbed to its seventh-straight defeat on the road in the IPL.

Turning point

The 22-run defence off the final over was not the only contribution from Avesh. The LSG pacer nabbed Suryakumar Yadav (67, 43b, 9x4, 1x6) in the 17th over which eventually turned the plot in his side’s favour.

MI attempted a late twist of the plot by retiring out Tilak Varma after his 23-ball 25 and sending in Mitchell Santner as Shardul Thakur bowled a superb penultimate over. The experienced medium-paver went for only seven.

The contest was firmly in MI’s grip during the 69-run third-wicket association between Suryakumar and Naman Dhir.

But Digvesh Rathi castled the latter with his slider.

LSG needed contrasting half-centuries from its opening salvo to tally its highest total at Ekana.

Perfect foil

Aiden Markram (53, 38b, 2x4, 4x6) anchored the innings and played the perfect foil to Mitchell Marsh’s (60, 31b, 9x4, 2x6) PowerPlay burst to get LSG to 203 for eight.

Vignesh Puthur broke the opening stand when he tricked Marsh into playing straight back to him with a googly.

Hardik quashed Ekana’s hopes of witnessing another Nicholas Pooran blitz when his slower bouncer took his top-edge to short third man.

It was a pace-off delivery that added to Rishabh Pant’s misery too, inducing a leading edge to long-off.

LSG looked like ending below-par when Hardik got Markram to hole out to long- off in the 18th over.

The MI captain even completed his maiden five-wicket haul in the 20th over, but Miller made sure Hardik’s team faced a mountain too steep to climb.

Published - April 04, 2025 07:38 pm IST