IPL 2025 | "We used slower bouncer well": LSG pacer Avesh Khan post victory over GT

LSG pacer Avesh Khan (left) celebrates the fall of a Gujarat Titans wicket with skipper Rishabh Pant in Ahmedabad on Thursday. Pic/PTI

Lucknow Super Giants made the most of the slightly favourable pitch conditions to dent table toppers Gujarat Titans's hopes of staying at the top of the 10-team Indian Premier League table with a 33-run win at the Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium on Thursday.

Gujarat Titans have had a smooth run in the tournament until they ran into a determined Lucknow outfit at home. They had lost only three out of 12 matches with their top three batters - Sai Sudharsan (638 runs), skipper Shubman Gill (636 runs), and Jos Buttler (533 runs) - in great form.

LSG batters hammer away

On a humid evening, however, the tables turned on GT as LSG's top three batters - Aiden Markram (445 runs), Nicholas Pooran (511 runs) and Mitchell Marsh (560 runs) - collectively scored 209 runs in Lucknow's 235 for 2. Marsh smashed a 47-ball 117, Pooran made an unbeaten 56 off 27 balls and Markram made a handy 36 off 24.

Sai Sudharsan

The GT chase was not easy as the expected dew factor was missing, and the 22-yard square became softer, making stroke-making tricky. The prolific Gujarat trio managed only 89 runs at the top, and while feared earlier, their middle-order, except Shahrukh Khan (57, 29 balls, five fours, three sixes, 196.55 strike rate), could not keep up with the asking rate and fell short by 33 runs.

"When we bowled, we used the slower bouncer well; the ball was getting stuck, which was an advantage for us; the wicket was slower, so we got the benefit," said the Lucknow seamer, Avesh Khan (2-51), who recovered from the first over pasting (21 runs) to claim key wickets of Gill and the rampaging Shahrukh Khan.

‘Middle order batted well'

Shahrukh Khan was the only GT middle-order batter who threatened to realistically take the game away from LSG, but the IPL Orange Cap holder Sai Sudharsan disagreed that their middle order was a concern as they get closer to the business end of the tournament. "After the first three wickets, our middle order batted really well and brought the game on course," Sudharsan said at the post-match press conference.

"I feel the middle order has done pretty well. Even in the first six, seven, or eight games, Sherfane [Rutherford] stepped up and got so many runs in the middle order and changed games for us. Even in Mumbai, he changed the course of the game for us," he reasoned.

"Even Shahrukh Bhai got an opportunity today to showcase his talent. So, I feel the middle order is on course as well. I do not think there is some gap or something in the middle order. I feel, touch wood, things went well for all three batters at the top, so they did not get more opportunity to play in the first half of the tournament," the GT southpaw said.