Oh, what an impact the 'Impact Player' rule is already having in the IPL 2025! A day after Kerala's mystery spinner Vignesh Puthur gave a mighty scare to Chennai Super Kings with a three-wicket haul for Mumbai Indians, Ashutosh Sharma turned the DC vs LSG match on its head last night in Visakhapatnam.
Set a target of 210 by Lucknow Super Giants, Delhi Capitals were looking down the barrel at 7/3 at one stage, and later at 65/5.
But, in walked Sharma as the Impact Player and blew away the Lucknow bowlers with an unbeaten 31-ball 66, to take DC home with one wicket and three balls remaining. He bludgeoned five sixes and as many fours in his whirlwind knock. He was ably supported by Vipraj Nigam (39 off 15 balls) and Tristan Stubbs (34 off 22 balls).
Almost all the LSG bowlers went for runs, with spinner Digvesh Rathi being an exception (2/32 in his four overs). Their strike spin bowler Ravi Bishnoi was the most expensive, giving away 53 runs in four overs while taking two wickets.
DC vs LSG: Ashutosh Sharma, the 'master chaser'
And he does it in 𝙎𝙏𝙔𝙇𝙀 😎
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 24, 2025
Ashutosh Sharma, take a bow! 🙇♂️
A #TATAIPL classic in Vizag 🤌
Updates ▶ https://t.co/aHUCFODDQL#DCvLSG | @DelhiCapitals pic.twitter.com/rVAfJMqfm7
Anybody who has been tracking the Madhya Pradesh lad's performances in this format, would not have been surprised by how he pulled off the stunning win for the Delhi Capitals.
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Last year, while playing for the Punjab Kings who had bought him for his base price of Rs 20 lakh, he had played similar impactful innings- 31 off 17, 33 not out off 15, 61 off 28 and 31 off 16. The 26-year-old scored 189 runs for PBKS at a strike-rate of 167.25.
Though Punjab did not retain him, his performances raised his stock in the IPL 2025 auction, with DC picking him for Rs 3.8 crore.
Sharma, in fact, has a penchant for such whirlwind knocks. He holds the record for the fastest T20 fifty by an Indian batter - for the Railways off just 11 balls against Arunachal Pradesh in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. In the tournament last year, he had a strike rate in the 160s.
