Match 7 of this Indian Premier League brings the matchup between Sunrisers Hyderabad up against the Lucknow Super Giants at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on March 27.
Indian Premier League 2025 | Match 7: Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Lucknow Super Giants | 19:30 IST, March 27
The Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) is one of the most destructive batting line-ups in the IPL as they showed over the past season with their openers Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma especially being one of the most explosive opening partnerships in the IPL.
In their opening encounter against the Rajasthan Royals their batters ran riot.
The Sunrisers top order of Travis Head (67 off 31 balls), Abhishek Sharma (24 off 11 balls) and Ishan Kishan (106 not out off 47 balls) led their team to a massive target of 286/6.
RR in response lost three quick wickets in the first three overs, making the chase more difficult. Sanju Samson (66 off 37 balls) and Dhruv Jurel (70 off 35 balls) did give RR a glimmer of hope but the target was too steep and RR got close but still lost by a decent margin of 44 runs. SRH bowlers Simarjeet Singh and Harshal Patel ended with two wickets each.
Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on the other hand lost in a thrilling last over opening encounter against the Delhi Capitals and might rue missed opportunities as they dominated a large part of the match in both batting and bowling. Their top order batted beautifully with Mitchell Marsh (72 off 36 balls) and Nicholas Pooran (75 off 30 balls) taking the DC bowlers to the cleaners. However, once both batters departed, DC tightened the screws and what seemed like it would end up into a massive total at one time didn’t go as imagined. LSG still ended their 20 overs with an above-par total of 209/8 on a turning pitch. Kuldeep Yadav bowled superbly and ended with figures of 2/20 for the Capitals with Aussie veteran Mitchell Starc ending his four overs spell with 3/42.
In response, DC were reeling at 65/5 after the powerplay. However, lower-middle order contributions from Tristan Stubbs (34 off 22 balls), Vipraj Nigam (39 off 15 balls) along with the match winner Ashutosh Sharma (66 not out off 31 balls) took DC home in a nerve-racking climax with one wicket remaining and three balls to spare. The lack of experience in the LSG bowling cost them the match as their regular pace bowlers Mayank Yadav and Mohsin Khan are out with long-term injuries. Though LSG will take some confidence from performances of Shardul Thakur (2/19), Digvesh Singh (2/31) and Manimaran Siddharth (2/39) who took important wickets.
Considering the batting strength of SRH and the inexperienced bowling line-up of the Lucknow Super Giants, this could be a difficult match for Rishabh Pant’s team. It remains to be seen how LSG will counter the likes of Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan who are great players of spin and can clear any kind of boundaries with their powerful striking ability.
Fantasy XI: Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Ishan Kishan, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant (wk), Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Pat Cummins(c), Harshal Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Shami.
Venue: Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad, Telangana
Winner’s Prediction: Sunrisers Hyderabad
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