Ashutosh Sharma’s brilliant, undefeated 66-run performance off 31 deliveries helped the Delhi Capitals defeat the Lucknow Super Giants by one wicket in Match 4 of the 2025 Indian Premier League on Monday, March 24.
Vipraj Nigam received his first IPL match credit from Ashutosh after his defiant batting display as a 20-year old IPL playing cricketer. He expressed gratitude towards Shikhar Dhawan for being both his mentor and former skipper at Punjab Kings before exit.
“Took the lessons from last year. Missed out on finishing the game on a couple of occasions in the previous season. The whole year I focused and visualised about it. Had the belief that if I play till the last over, anything can happen. Well played to Vipraj. I asked him to keep hitting. He was very calm under pressure. Want to dedicate this award to my mentor Shikhar paaji,” stated Ashutosh during the post-match presentation ceremony.
Vipraj and Ashutosh put together a game-changing partnership of 55 runs off 22 deliveries for the seventh wicket. Vipraj made his IPL debut with a blazing score of 39 off 15 balls. Earlier that night, he even took his first wicket.
Regarding his recognition of Dhawan, it may be related to their mutual experience at Punjab Kings during the last iteration of the prestigious T20 competition. Dhawan was a key contributor to Ashutosh’s decision to play for PBKS. At the Jeddah mega auction, DC paid INR 3.8 crore for the batting all-rounder because of his eventual finishing prowess.
It was only the seventh time that DC has won by that margin in an IPL match that wasn’t impacted by weather. Axar Patel started the 2025 Indian Premier League with a winning record. On Sunday, March 30, DC will play Sunrisers Hyderabad at the same location. DC will play its first afternoon match of the season against SRH.
