Delhi Capitals’ batter Ashutosh Sharma hogged the limelight on Monday as he played a magnum opus knock of 66 runs off just 31 balls against Lucknow Super Giants at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam in team’s opener of IPL 2025 to help his team clinch a one-wicket victory.
While chasing 210 runs for the win, DC were in all sorts of trouble at 65-5 after 6.4 overs. However, Ashutosh Sharma, who got off to a run-a-ball start, was able to turn the tables with his blistering batting in the death overs.
The 26-year-old batted at the top of his game and played a scintillating knock to help DC get over the line in a thrilling chase.
Sharma said he was confident about getting a win for his team despite playing with number 11 batter, Mohit Sharma in the final over.
“I was confident. It’s part of the game. Whether it’s an appeal or not a run. It wasn’t part of my batting, so I was confident that if he took a single, I would be able to hit a six. I was really confident about my ability.” said Ashutosh at the post-match press conference.
“I really enjoyed (my innings). My hard work paid off.”
In the first 19 balls, Sharma scored at run-a-ball but later changed gears to keep DC alive. He said he wanted to take the game deep.
“I just follow the basics and believed in my ability. I was just following the process. I wanted to go deep as much as possible so that I could hit in the slog overs.”
Ashutosh had impressed in his maiden season for Punjab Kings in IPL 2024 but said that is now in the past and he has been working even harder on improving his game.
“Last year was really good but that’s history for me. I have taken the positives from there and worked on myself, to improve whatever weaknesses I had. I’m applying what I did in domestic cricket.”
“Missed out on finishing the game on a couple of occasions in the previous season. The whole year I focussed and visualised about it. Had the belief that if I play till the last over, anything can happen. Well played to Vipraj. I asked him to keep hitting. He was very calm under pressure. Want to dedicate this award to my mentor Shikhar (Dhawan) paaji.”
Delhi Capitals would next take on Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam on Sunday.
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