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Shardul Thakur made a spectacular return and proved his value on the big stage, just weeks after going unsold in the IPL 2025 mega auction. The pacer, who at first received no bid, was eventually signed as a substitute by the Lucknow Super Giants, and he quickly made an impression. When facing the Sunrisers Hyderabad's potent batting order, Thakur put on an incredible display, sending the opposition reeling from his flaming spell. He dismissed Ishan Kishan and Abhishek Sharma on consecutive deliveries and destroyed SRH's top order and prevented them from posting a massive total in the match.
Shardul Thakur on getting a chance with LSG
After taking six wickets this season, he earned the purple cap. He got rid of Mohammed Shami in the 19th over and Abhinav Manohar in the 17th to complete his four-fer in this clash. After the first innings, he talked about how it was a bad day for him, not getting picked in the auction. He revealed how Zaheer Khan being in the team motivated him to accept the offer with LSG.
"I feel all these things happen in cricket. It was a bad day for me in the auction (I didn't get picked by any franchise). LSG was the one who approached me first due to the injuries to their bowlers, so it was always on the cards. I had to accept it with Zaheer Khan around. You have to go through such things (ups and downs) in cricket. Winning in the game is important for me. I don't look at the wickets or runs column. I want to create an impact and a match winning performance. The batters are coming hard at the bowlers, why not the bowlers go hard at them, that was our plan against SRH. They have been scoring heavily on flat pitches. It fell in our pockets initially (earlier today)," said Shardul Thakur after the first innings.
Travis Head top-scored with a 28-ball 47 for Sunrisers Hyderabad. However,l Shardul Thakur's four-wicket haul helped Lucknow Super Giants hold Sunrisers Hyderabad to 190/9 in their IPL match here on Thursday. Apart from Head, Nitish Kumar Reddy (32), Heinrich Klaasen (26), and Aniket Verma (36) made crucial contributions after SRH were invited to bat by LSG.
LSG would be happy with the score they managed to restrict SRH on, as even before the match started, cricket pundits and fans were expecting that SRH might score 190 runs on board as LSG's bowling wasa little underfire with injury concerns. They now need to score 191 runs. However, it might not be an easy job as SRH has some great bowlers in their arsenal.
