Snubbed by the franchises in the player auction for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, Mumbai all-rounder Shardul Thakur had signed up to play County Cricket in England when Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) picked him as a replacement for left-arm fast bowler Mohsin Khan, who has been ruled out due to an injury.
With many other LSG bowlers struggling with injuries, Thakur was pushed to the forefront as their pace spearhead. On Thursday, he helped Lucknow Super Giants defeat Sunrisers Hyderabad to a five-wicket win with 23 balls remaining.
With many other LSG bowlers struggling with injuries, Thakur was pushed to the forefront as their pace spearhead. On Thursday, he helped Lucknow Super Giants defeat Sunrisers Hyderabad to a five-wicket win with 23 balls remaining.
The 33-year-old Shardul Thakur claimed four wickets for 34 runs as he helped LSG restrict Sunrisers Hyderabad to 190/9 in 20 overs.
I had made my plans. I had signed for County Cricket if I wasn't picked for IPL. While playing Ranji, I got a call from Zaheer Khan that we are looking at you as a potential replacement so don't switch yourself off. If we get you we'll need you to start. That was the day I got back in the IPL zone. Ups and downs keep happening. That was a bad day when I wasn't picked in the auction.
Thakur claimed the wickets of the dangerous Abhishek Sharma (6), Ishan Kishan (0), Abhinav Manohar (2) and Mohammed Shami (1). Travis Head (47), Nitish Kumar Reddy (32), Heinrich Klaasen (26), and a blistering cameo by Aniket Verma, who blasted a 13-ball 36 to help them reach what could be called a below-par score on a pitch on which SRH had hammered 286 in their previous match.
The right-handed pacer from Mumbai was helped by the swing offered by the pitch and took his chances.
"Of course, some swing, and what we have seen is that Travis Head and Abhishek like to take their chances so let me take my chances as well. See I feel bowlers get very little on this kind of pitches. Even in the last game pre-match, I said that pitches should be prepared in such a way that the game hangs in the balance for batters and bowlers. Especially after the impact player rule, it's not fair on the bowlers," he said.
Chasing the target of 191, LSG rode on half-centuries by Mitchell Marsh (52 off 31 balls) and Nicholas Pooran (70 off 26 balls, 6x4, 6x6) to reach 193/5 in 16.1 overs, winning the match comfortably and bagging their first points in the league.
Marsh and Pooran shared a partnership of 116 runs for the second wicket. This is the highest partnership for the second wicket for LSG, improving on the previous best of 95 between K.L. Rahul and Deepak Hooda. Towards the end, Abdul Samad scored an unbeaten 22 to help LSG reach the target.
LSG captain Rishabh Pant expressed relief after their first win of the season.
Definitely a big relief, but as a team we talk about the process. We don't want to get too high after winning and too low after losing, taking it one match at a time. It was a big concern, but as a team, we don't want to focus on uncontrollables. Like my mentor said, focus on controllables. Good to see Avesh (Khan) come back, Shardul is bowling well.
I think we just want to give freedom to him. I like that freedom too. But we've just told him to go express himself and he's batting phenomenally for us. Everyone is preparing really well, training well.
SRH captain Pat Cummins said they fell short by a few runs in the end as they were playing on a different wicket to the one on which they won their first match.
Different wicket to the other day. We wanted to get above 200. A little short but they batted very well. The other day was the world's best wicket, today's was probably the second-best. Every time it's a fresh game. Really happy with how we went. They bowled well. A few things didn't go our way but we did pretty well to get to 190. You always hope for that one person to bat through the innings like Ishan did that day. But we missed that. But we had a few good cameos.
Brief Scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 190/9 in 20 overs (Travis Head 47, Aniket Verma 36; Shardul Thakur 4/34, Prince Yadav 1-29) lost to Lucknow Super Giants 193/5 in 16.3 overs (Nicholas Pooran 70, Mitchell Marsh 52; Pat Cummins 3-29, Harshal Patel 1-28) by five wickets.
