Sunrisers Hyderabad Abhishek Sharma exults after half half-century against Lucknow Super Giants during the IPL match at Ekana stadium, in Lucknow on May 19, 2025
| Photo Credit: Sandeep Saxena

Sunrisers Hyderabad rode on Abhishek Sharma’s blitz to extinguish the last remaining embers of Lucknow Super Giants’ playoff hopes in IPL 2025 with a comprehensive six-wicket win at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow on Monday (May 19, 2025).

Asked to bat, LSG’s Mitchell Marsh first handed debutant Harsh Dubey a tough initiation to life in the IPL and then welcomed Eshan Malinga by smacking the ball over deep backward square and onto the parked sponsor car.

Aiden Markram and Marsh, who brought up their fifth half-centuries of the season, both got reprieves in the space of nine balls.

However, Sunrisers pegged the home team back, sending back Marsh and Rishabh Pant in quick succession. The slower ball was employed to good effect to squeeze the run flow. An eventful final over featuring three dismissals and two humongous sixes saw SRH hold back the host, but not enough to prevent another 200-plus target.

Lucknow Super Giants’ Aiden Markram drives Harsh Dubey of Sunrisers Hyderabad during IPL match at Ekana stadium, in Lucknow on May 19, 2025
| Photo Credit:
Sandeep Saxena

Will O’Rourke, on IPL debut, gave LSG an early breakthrough by scalping Atharva Taide. Abhishek then threatened to make it another night to forget for LSG and its fans, one year after his blitzkrieg in Hyderabad.

Ravi Bishnoi bore the brunt of his wrath. Four consecutive sixes — over long-off, long-on, straight down the ground and deep mid-wicket — not only helped Sunrisers take control of the proceedings but also gave Abhishek an 18-ball half century.

It was the fourth time he has reached the mark in fewer than 20 balls, the joint-most in IPL with Nicholas Pooran.

Digvesh Rathi brought an end to Abhishek’s assault with a googly and duly brought out the notebook celebration, which led to a brief heated moment between the two. Digvesh then broke Ishan Kishan and Heinrich Klaasen’s 41-run stand when the former couldn’t time his reverse sweep and saw his wickets rattled.

Kamindu Mendis exacted revenge, smacking Digvesh for three fours on the trot, the highlight being a premeditated reverse sweep that sent the ball sailing between backward point and short third man.

The semi-packed stands began to slowly clear out by the time Klaasen was dismissed and Mendis retired hurt before Aniket Verma and Nitish Kumar wrapped up the win with 10 balls to spare.