Rishabh Pant-led Lucknow Super Giants picked up a massive win after defeating Shubman Gill's Gujarat Titans by 6 wickets in match 26 of the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, which is being played at the Ekana Cricket Stadium, on April 12. LSG won the toss and elected to bowl first. This decision did not seem right at first, as Gill and Sai Sudharsan smashed fifties and gave their team a great start. However, hosts made a great comeback and restricted GT to 180/6. Later, they managed to chase it down with 3 balls remaining. GT also lost their top spot on the points table with this loss and are at the second position now.
LSG restrict GT on 180/6 despite Gill and Sudharsan's fifties
In an IPL encounter, GT captain Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan quickly reached half-centuries during their opening 120-run partnership before the Lucknow Super Giants superbly rallied to hold Gujarat Titans to 180 for six. The home bowlers staged a heroic return, taking three fast wickets to slow the high-scoring rate after Sudharsan (56 off 37) hit his fourth fifty of the season and set the stage for a huge total with Gill (60 off 38).
After establishing the season's best opening wicket partnership, the visitors were only able to muster 60 in the final eight overs. Sudharsan got off to a fast start by hitting Shardul Thakur (2/34) short delivery to the backward point to open the innings with a boundary. Both Gill and Sudharsan punished the home bowlers by collecting boundaries in nearly every over. As the visitors scored 64 in the powerplay, Sudharsan blasted a ball from Avesh Khan on the pads over the backward square-leg fence to put GT up to fifty in the sixth over. However, Sudharsan took a backseat as Gill, his captain, found boundaries with ease thanks to his crisp and straightforward hitting.
Pooran's blitz take LSG over the line
With Marsh missing out on this game, Rishabh Pant promoted himself up the order and opened the innings alongside Aiden Markram. Although the LSG skipper seemed out of touch, but joined a 65-run opening partnership and gave his team a good start. He lost his wicket to Prasidh Krishna in the 7th over. Markram completed his fifty but was dismissed by Prasidh as well in the 12th over.
In-form star Nicholas Pooran was once again the difference maker as he played a blazing innings of 61 runs off just 34 balls. He was dismissed by Rashid Khan, but he had ensured that GT would not have a chance to capitalise on it and LSG would manage to pick up their third consecutive win here. The remaining was done by Ayush Badoni, who took LSG over the line with his 20-ball 28. GT bowlers appeared highly ineffective in this game. Gill's captaincy was under scanner as well, as he only let Arshad Khan bowl two overs, who was GT's most economical bowler with just 11 runs in 2 overs.