Mitchell Marsh and Nicholas Pooran, two shining specks for Lucknow Super Giants in its otherwise dull Indian Premier League 2025 campaign, did the bulk of the scoring as the already eliminated side did the double on Gujarat Titans by 33 runs on Thursday.
The defeat was a setback to Titans’ hopes of finishing in the top two while Super Giants moved past Kolkata Knight Riders to sixth in the table.
While the Australian all-rounder became the first foreigner to score a hundred in 2025 off 56 balls, Pooran contributed with a fifty.
The Titans, opting to bowl, did well to contain LSG’s Marsh and Aiden Markram to 53 inside the PowerPlay at the Narendra Modi Stadium, where the average winning score this season has been 220. But Shubman Gill and Co. continued to lose their grip thereafter.
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The physio had a more expansive heat-map than most of GT’s other players in the first six overs as he tended to injuries sustained by Arshad Khan, who slipped twice near the landing area, Mohammed Siraj and Kagiso Rabada, both hit on the hand in their follow-through.
The first wicket came against the run of play in the 10th over as Markram holed out to M. Shahrukh Khan at long off.
Rashid Khan’s struggles with length were laid bare once again in the 12th over under the glaring lights of the largest cricket stadium in the world. The bloodbath was so graphic that a last-ball single from Marsh almost seemed like a mercy call in the 25-run over.
When Marsh eventually fell in the 19th over, the damage had already been done.
In reply, the Titans’ openers blunted the new ball to good effect after B. Sai Sudharsan staged a great escape in the second over when nobody spotted the ball taking a piece off the southpaw’s pad. However, the free pass lasted only three more overs as the Orange Cap holder chipped a slower delivery from Will O’Rourke to Markram at mid off.
In the 10th over, a largely untested Titans middle order was left exposed after Akash Singh saw Jos Buttler’s bails light up shortly after Gill departed. This was the first time none of the Titans’ top three had survived until the 15th over.
While Sherfane Rutherford and Shahrukh’s partnership momentarily provided LSG the scares, it was never to be.
