Chandigarh 25 March 2025 (Punjab Khabarnama Bureau): Delhi Capitals earned a one-wicket victory over the Lucknow Super Giants on Monday in an explosive Indian Premier League encounter that went down the wire. The hero for Delhi was Ashutosh Sharma, who had spent all of IPL 2024 playing the finisher role for Punjab Kings but not always finishing the job at hand.
Monday, however, was a different ball game as Ashutosh slammed an unbeaten 66 off just 31 balls to drag Delhi Capitals home.
What was remarkable about Ashutosh’s innings was how he paced it: he was 20 off 20 balls. Then, he exploded with Delhi Capitals needing 62 runs to win off 30 balls with four wickets in hand, as he hit 46 runs off the next 11 balls.
Ashutosh had come out to bat with the team at 65/5 in the seventh over and with the required rate almost touching 10in a chase of 210. But Ashutosh said he was unfazed, even when he was batting with nine wickets down and No.11 batter Mohit Sharma had to take strike for the first ball of the 20th 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 (Mohit) took a single, I would be able to hit a six. I was really confident about my ability,” Ashutosh said at the post-match press conference.
“I really enjoyed (my innings). My hard work paid off,” he said before adding: “I just followed the basics and believed in my ability. I wanted to go as deep as possible so that I could hit in the slog overs.”
He added: “Last year (with Punjab Kings) 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 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.”
Summary: Delhi Capitals’ star Ashutosh Sharma credits his confidence to a year of visualization, reflecting on his stunning performance.