‘Going to drink some more masala tea to make sure I can hit ball like that’
Delhi Capitals’ vice captain Faf du Plessis was among the people who were left stunned the power hitting from Ashutosh Sharma and Vipraj Nigam as the duo dragged the DC team over the finish line against the Lucknow Super Giants on Monday in Visakhapatnam. The one-wicket victory illustrated just how narrow the margin was on the night.
“I’m definitely going to drink some more masala tea to make sure I can hit the ball like the boys do at the end,” Du Plessis joked at the post-game briefing. “As an overseas player, one thing that’s remarkable for me to watch is the amount of Indian players that are so powerful and they have the ability to just strike the ball so easily. It wasn’t an easy pitch. There was a lot going on, but the two boys at the back end there, just the way they came in and (were) just effortlessly hitting boundaries.”
Ashutosh Sharma celebrates Delhi Capitals’ win in the Indian Premier League season 18 (IPL 2025) over Lucknow Super Giants at the Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam. (Sportzpics for IPL)
Ashutosh slammed an unbeaten 66 off just 31 balls while Vipraj hit 39 off 15 balls. Ashutosh was called in Delhi Capitals as an Impact Sub with the team reeling at 65/5 in the seventh over. At that stage, the required rate was almost touching 10 in a chase of 210.
Story continues below this ad
Impact of Impact Player rule
“A lot of the cricketers, if you ask them, they would complain about the [Impact Player] rule in the IPL but this is obviously why that rule is there – for games when you think that you’re completely dead and buried, someone comes in and plays like that,” Du Plessis said.
“To be honest, when I looked at the wicket and saw how much the ball was gripping and losing five wickets, I thought it was going to be an almost impossible task. But it’s even great for the old brain of mine just to make sure that you can never be out of a game completely. The extra batter really makes a big difference,” Du Plessis added.
