Delhi Capitals snatched a win from the jaws of defeat to notch up a couple of points in their campaign opener in IPL 2025 against the Lucknow Super Giants. Ashutosh Sharma was batting at 20 (20) at one stage before smashing 46 off the next 11 deliveries he faced to guide DC to a miraculous win.
Delhi Capitals pulled off their highest chase in IPL history as the hosts at their adopted home ground in Vizag shocked the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), who for the most part of the second innings thought they were in the driver’s seat until they weren’t. At 7/3 in the powerplay and at 65/5, it seemed like the Capitals’ innings wasn’t going anywhere but the innings from Axar Patel, Tristan Stubbs and Vipraj Nigam, who was making his IPL debut, kept the home side on course for Sharma to finish it off.
This was only the second successful 200-plus chase for the Delhi franchise in the IPL and the highest as they surpassed their 209-run chase eight years ago when young Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson blew away Gujarat Lions in an exhibition of power and exuberance of youth on a small Kotla ground in 2017.
Highest successful run-chases for Delhi in IPL
211/9 vs LSG (210) – Visakhapatnam, 2025
214/3 vs GL (209) – Delhi, 2017
197/8 vs GL (196) – Kanpur, 2017
198/4 vs PBKS (196) – Mumbai WS, 2021
195/3 vs MI – Mumbai WS, 2018
Punjab Kings are still at the top with the highest number of 200-plus run-chases in the IPL (7) but this win and the manner in which they got over the line will give the new captain Axar Patel and the coaching staff a lot of confidence as the Capitals got over the line in the absence of their two big buys KL Rahul and T Natarajan.
Earlier, the Super Giants at 161/2 in 13 overs looked like getting a total in excess of 230-240 but the Capitals clipped their wings in the last seven overs, giving away just 48 runs while taking six wickets after Mitchell Marsh and Nicholas Pooran smoked a couple of fiery 70-odd knocks. The inexperienced bowling attack, however, came to haunt Rishabh Pant and LSG and their next game is against the Hyderabad monsters, who are baying for anyone and everyone’s blood.
