Lucknow Super Giants 203 for 8 (Marsh 60, Markram 53, Badoni 30, Hardik 5-36) beat Mumbai Indians 191 for 5 (Suryakumar 67, Dhir 46, Hardik 28*, Rathi 1-21) by 12 runs

Tilak Varma was retired out, and Hardik Pandya farmed the strike. But the last-ditch effort wasn't enough for Mumbai Indians (MI) to register a come-from-behind win against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in their IPL 2025 game on Friday night.

LSG have now won six of their seven games against the five-time champions, and this one in Lucknow was on the back of half-centuries from openers Mitchell Marsh and Aiden Markram, and a game-changing spell of 4-0-21-1 from Digvesh Rathi.

For MI, Naman Dhir made an explosive 46, and Suryakumar Yadav continued to show form with a 43-ball 67. But LSG's death bowlers - special mention to Shardul Thakur - stood tall against the experienced MI batting line-up.

Avesh and Thakur close it out

With 52 runs needed in the last four overs, ESPNcricinfo's forecaster gave MI a 36.9% chance of winning. With Suryakumar and Tilak at the crease and Hardik to follow, it seemed closer to 50-50.

Avesh Khan changed that by dismissing Suryakumar to start the 17th over. The batter pre-meditated a sweep, and he went through with it despite the ball being well outside the off-side tramline. The catch was taken at deep-backward square-leg.

Hardik, the next batter in, and Tilak, got a boundary each in the over, but couldn't get Rathi away in the next one. Thakur bowled yorkers in the 19th - at the stumps as well as wide ones - and with another 24 runs needed off the remaining seven balls, MI decided to retire Tilak out and bring in Mitchell Santner.

Two runs from Santner off the last ball of that over from Thakur, in which just seven runs were scored, left MI an improbable 22 runs to get in the final over. Hardik was on strike, and although he launched Avesh over cover to start with a six, Avesh continued aiming for yorkers, and conceded just three runs off the five deliveries of the over.

The forecaster was right, after all.

Suryakumar, Dhir give MI a chance

MI had gotten themselves into a good position despite stumbling early in the chase. Dhir and Suryakumar took charge after MI lost Will Jacks and Ryan Rickelton, their openers, in near-identical fashion: both hit hard-length balls to deep-backward square-leg.

Dhir was remarkably still at the crease, and hit boundaries down the ground and through the leg side to get to 30 off his first nine balls. Suryakumar, meanwhile, swatted Avesh over the leg side as MI brought up their 50 in five overs. Akash Deep and Ravi Bishnoi were hit for two boundaries each right after the powerplay.

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But Rathi broke the flow with a legspinner's carrom ball that angled in off a shortish length, beat Dhir's flick, and hit the stumps. Suryakumar, though, continued to find the boundary without taking too many risks. His ability to manipulate the field was on display in the 11th over when he first played the square drive and then the cover drive to pick up two fours. Tilak, too, picked up an early boundary but couldn't get going.

MI got 88 for 1 in the middle overs despite not hitting a single six. They had set batters at the crease for the big finish, and it looked like they were well placed. But LSG's death bowlers made all the difference in the end.

Marsh and Markram lay LSG's foundation

Earlier, LSG made 69 runs in the powerplay after being put in to bat. Marsh made 60 of them off 31 balls, with nine fours and two sixes. He was caught behind off Trent Boult in the first over, but neither the bowler nor his team-mates heard the nick as Marsh tried driving through the covers.

Marsh took advantage. He was severe against full balls, and the lofted off-drive off Boult for six in the third over was a highlight. When Santner was introduced in the fifth over, Marsh picked up two boundaries, both off the back foot.

Ashwani Kumar bowled a quiet first over but went for 23 runs off his second with two boundaries down the ground - through square leg and cover - as Marsh got to a 27-ball fifty. But he fell against the run of play by handing a return catch to Vignesh Puthur in his first over, the seventh of the innings.

Hardik chips away but LSG push along

Nicholas Pooran was LSG's in-form batter, and he looked in business straightaway, smacking Santner for a four and a six. But Hardik's slower bouncer first accounted for Pooran, and then for the out-of-form Rishabh Pant, who got a leading edge off an attempted flick to mid-off.

Markram hit a couple of sixes while batting with Pant, but got back to playing second fiddle as Ayush Badoni played himself in. Markram got to his fifty off 34 balls, off what was the 99th ball of the innings.

Badoni was on 6 off his first nine deliveries before breaking free with three back-to-back boundaries off Santner, who finished with 0 for 46, his third-most expensive spell in a T20. Badoni scooped Ashwani on the fifth ball of the 16th over, but was out caught behind next ball trying to repeat the shot as the bowler went wider.

In the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik bowled two overs at the death and picked up three wickets, starting with that of Markram with the offcutter. Only four fours were hit between overs 16 and 19, and MI would have hoped to restrict LSG to under 200.

David Miller, though, whacked a six and a four off Hardik, and brought up his 3000th IPL run in the process to start the final over. Hardik bounced back with Miller and Akash Deep's wickets in two balls, but conceded 15 runs in the end and LSG got past 200.