Ahmedabad, May 22 (IANS) Pacer William O’Rourke picked 3-27, including twin strikes in the 17th over, as Lucknow Super Giants secured a 33-run win over top-ranked Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Thursday.
After opener Mitchell Marsh slammed the fastest century by a Lucknow Super Giants batter in IPL’s history through a 64-ball 117 and propelled the side to 235/2, the visitors took out GT’s in-form top three batters within the first ten overs.
GT’s middle order was finally put to a stern test, and Shahrukh Khan kept them in the hunt by sharing an 86-run stand off 40 balls for the fourth wicket with Sherfane Rutherford. But O’Rourke’s double strike meant GT finished on 202/9, as LSG won both their games against the hosts this season.
Chasing 236, Shubman Gill and B Sai Sudharsan hit eight fours in the first four overs – five of which came off the GT skipper’s blade. After Sudharsan cut William O’Rourke for a four, the pacer bowled a slightly fuller ball and the left-handed opener went for a drive, but was early into it and was caught by diving mid-off completing a low grab.
Jos Buttler was blazing from the word go – scooping, smacking, lofting, and drilling Avesh Khan for 20 runs in the last over of power-play. Gill continued to be sublime by hitting two fours, before going for a loft off Avesh resulted in the bat slightly rotating in his hand, and sliced to long-off, who put in a sprint and dived to complete a stunning catch.
Akash Singh, who split his webbing on the right hand while trying to stop a drive off Gill, got a slower ball to come back in and castle Buttler through the gate. The left-arm pacer dedicated the wicket to Digvesh Rathi, who was out of this game due to getting his third demerit point, by bringing out the notebook celebration and pointing towards the dressing room, as GT lost their top three batters before reaching the halfway mark.
With 139 runs needed off the last ten overs, Shahrukh and Rutherford stepped up to keep GT in the hunt. They hit quick boundaries initially before taking 17 and 19 runs off Avesh and Shahbaz Ahamad off overs 14 and 15 respectively, and followed it up by hitting Akash Deep for 17 runs in the 16th over.
With 54 runs needed off the last four overs, Rutherford went for an aerial flick off O’Rourke but was early into the shot, and substitute fielder Ravi Bishnoi came in from deep midwicket to complete the catch.
O’Rourke struck again in the same over by having Rahul Tewatia hole out to long-off, before Shahbaz had Arshad Khan slicing to point. Once Avesh had Shahrukh, who got his fifty in 22 balls, caught at cover off a low dipping full toss, the game was all but sealed in LSG’s favour.
Brief scores:
Lucknow Super Giants 235/2 in 20 overs (Mitchell Marsh 117, Nicholas Pooran 56 not out; R Sai Kishore 1-34, Arshad Khan 1-36) beat Gujarat Titans 202/9 in 20 overs (Shahrukh Khan 57, Sherfane Rutherford 38; William O’Rourke 3-27, Ayush Badoni 2-4) by 33 runs
–IANS
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