The Player-of-the-Match winning 4 for 34 against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Thursday night – also the second-best match performance with the ball this season – has put Shardul Thakur at the top of the leaderboard for the Purple Cap at IPL 2025 after seven games. And in a double (or triple) whammy for Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), the first two names on the Orange Cap list are also their men, Nicholas Pooran and Mitchell Marsh.

The Purple Cap table

Shardul Thakur is at the top with six wickets from two games. An injury replacement for Mohsin Khan, Thakur picked up 2 for 19 in LSG’s first game, the loss to Delhi Capitals (DC), opening the bowling and sending back Jake Fraser-McGurk and Abishek Porel in the first over. Against the big-hitting SRH line-up, he first got rid of Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan off consecutive balls in the third over, and later accounted for Abhinav Manohar and Mohammed Shami.

Noor Ahmad of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) is second on the list, but right on top for best returns in a match. His wristspin-as-art 4 for 18 in CSK’s opening win over Mumbai Indians (MI) makes him one of the players to watch this season.

Krunal Pandya is at third place for his 3 for 29 for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on IPL 2025 opening night against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).

The Orange Cap table

Nicholas Pooran has been hitting sixes for fun for a while even though he doesn’t “plan to hit sixes”, and at IPL 2025, he is also racking up superb numbers from No. 3: 75 from 30 against DC and 70 from 26 against SRH. One came batting second and the other batting first. He is also on top of the six-hitters’ leaderboard with 13 from two innings, and no one has a higher strike rate, at the moment, than his 258.91.

Mitchell Marsh, who goes out to bat at the top of the LSG order, is behind Pooran with 124 runs – 72 in 36 against DC and 52 in 31 against SRH – from two games. A batter-only this season as he returns from injury, Marsh’s consistent runs give LSG breathing room at the top.

Travis Head is at No. 3, as he shows no stopping after an exhilarating IPL 2024. In the first game, against Rajasthan Royals (RR), his 67 came from 31 balls as SRH nearly broke the IPL’s all-time record. Against LSG, his 47 came from 28 balls.