29 March,2025 07:54 AM IST | Hyderabad | N Jagannath Das
LSG’s Shardul Thakur during their match against SRH at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Thursday. Pics/AFP
From remaining unsold at the auction to taking six wickets in two matches, in just six overs, the combative Shardul Thakur sent a gentle reminder that he's still a force to reckon with. Taking the bull by its horns, Thakur lorded over the Sunrisers Hyderabad batters and threw a spanner in thir works at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Thursday night.
The India discard blew away all talk of a flat wicket or the possibility of a 300-total by the SRH batters to lead Lucknow Super Giants to a dominant five-wicket win. Thakur said his team's bowlers went hard at the SRH batters. The hosts, who believe in aggressive batting, got a taste of their own medicine and were on the backfoot from the third over itself. Thakur delivered telling blows by packing off Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan in successive deliveries to plot the home team's downfall. Coming back in the death overs, Thakur dismissed Abhinav Manohar and Mohammed Shami. The 33-year-old still has the hunger and showed exemplary skills with the ball on a wicket that is considered to be a nightmare for bowlers.
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Disappointed after being ignored in this year's IPL auction, Player-of-the-Match Thakur had even considered a county offer in England before LSG bowling coach Zaheer Khan roped in the utility Mumbai player. Coming in as a replacement for Mohsin Khan, Thakur was confident he would be in the playing XI. "I always back my skills," he said during the post-match presentation.
From what he had seen in the past, he was aware that there would be some swing at this venue. Skipper Rishabh Pant took a bold decision to bowl first. The ball swung and Thakur took his chances. "[Travis] Head and Abhishek love to take their chances, so I thought I will take my chances as well. New ball is a thing where you can take wickets when it is swinging. Bowlers get very little in these kinds of matches. Even in the last game, I said that pitches should be prepared in a way that the game hangs in the balance," added Thakur.
LSG's Mitchell Marsh felt Thakur bowled outstandingly. "He [Shardul] set the tone for us early and then, especially with Abhishek and Travis, the way they go, you are under pressure straight away. So, I think Shardul showed his experience against those guys and certainly towards the back end, bowled really well. But, I think it was just a really good all-round performance for us," Marsh said.
However, this was not the surface that SRH ran up to 286-6 against Rajasthan Royal, but the adjacent one. Cummins said it was the second-best wicket. "It gripped a little bit, but it was a nice wicket." The Australian Test captain said that his side were done in by the LSG bowlers. "You always need one person to bat throughout the innings, like Ishan [Kishan] did the other day, but they bowled really well, never let us off the hook,'' said a disappointed Cummins.
The wicket was beautiful, according to aggressive left-hander and Orange Cap-holder Nicholas Pooran. "Looking at the earlier games, every time you come to Hyderabad, it's big scores here. [It] was a good toss to win, if you don't lose wickets in the Powerplay, you can go hard. I have never worked on my bat-speed, just blessed with incredible talent. It's a really long tournament and nice to see Marshy showing his class," Pooran said.
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