IPL 2025: ‘Fascinating to bat alongside Pooran’, says Marsh

New Delhi: After making 52 in Lucknow Super Giants’ five-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2025, opening all-rounder Mitchell Marsh said it was a fascinating experience for him to bat alongside Nicholas Pooran, who top-scored with 70 off just 26 balls at a strike-rate of 269.23.

“The only word I have for it is ‘fascinating’. I’ve played against Nicky (Pooran) for a long time, and usually, I’ve been on the receiving end of such innings. Being on the same team, I feel a great connection with him as a bloke and as someone who I’m going to hopefully bat with a lot.

“There wasn’t much chat, to be honest. When someone’s in the zone like he was, you just try to build a partnership and keep going. He was almost unstoppable here,” said Marsh, who hit his second fifty of the ongoing competition, after the game.

He also lauded all-rounder Shardul Thakur for picking 4-34 and not letting a power-packed SRH batting line-up run away with the match. “I thought Shardul bowled exceptionally well and set the tone for us early on. Against batsmen like Abhishek and Travis Head, you’re under pressure right away, but Shardul used his experience to great effect.

“He bowled particularly well towards the end. Overall, it was a solid all-round performance, and it’s great to start the tournament with a win. It was about focusing on what we’re good at and how we want to go about it.

“I think we stuck to our guns really well. No need for us to get ahead of ourselves. There’s no easy game in the IPL. Every team has a great list. To knock these guys off will hopefully give us a lot of confidence,” elaborated Marsh.

Marsh signed off by lauding pacer Prince Yadav for picking 1-29, including castling the dangerous Travis Head. “Firstly, I’m really proud of Prince in his second IPL game. The way he bowled and executed his plans was impressive, and I’m sure it will give him a lot of confidence moving forward.”

“As I mentioned the other day, we told him to rely on his depth in this long tournament. For someone like him to get an opportunity early on and step up for us was really impressive,” concluded Marsh.

IANS