In an exciting finish to the Indian Premier League (IPL) match between Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Lucknow Super Giants were able to record a narrow victory of just one wicket in a thrilling finish at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Monday night.
Royal Challengers Bangalore scored 212/9 in their 20 overs batting first, Lucknow Super Giants finished at 213/9 in their 20 overs with Nicolas Pooran storing a stunning 62 from this 19 balls while recording the fastest half-century in this Indian Premier League 2023 season.
For RCB, three of their batsmen including all-rounder Glenn Maxwell and opening batsman Virat Kohli scored half-century each while their captain Faf du Plessis top scored with 79 the former South Africa capital Faf du Plessis hit five sixes and five boundaries to make 79 from just 46 balls and added 96 runs for the first wicket with Virat Kohli, who scored 61 from 45 balls with the help of four boundaries and four sixes.
Virat Kohli was indeed more aggressive on Monday night, the first to take the initiative of scoring the runs for Royal Challengers Bangalore who batted first. RCB captain Faf du Plessis the joined in later but he was good enough to make the highest score in the innings whereas RCB and Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell was his prime form. The right-handed batsman Glenn Maxwell hit six sixes and three boundaries to make 59 from 29 balls while adding 115 runs for the second wicket in the company of Faf du Plessis.
For Lucknow Super Giants, all of their bowlers for expensive but express England fast bowler Mark Wood returned with 4-1-32-1 whereas Amit Mishra, who was substituted out later in the game, bowled two overs for 18 runs with one wicket.
In their reply, Lucknow Super Giants made a poor start with Kyle Mayers (0), Deepak Hooda (9) and Krunal Pandya (0) failing to make a mark. The struggle of the bag their captain KL Rahul continued in this game as well as the right-handed India batsman could manage only 18 from 20 balls with the help of one boundary while the budget for almost half of the LSG innings.
Lucknow Super Giants were able to make a come back into the contest with a stunning knock from Marcus Stoinis who hit five sixes and six boundaries to make 65 from just 30 balls to make a statement while he was supported very well by the knock from Nicolas Pooran, who made 62 from just 19 balls while recording the fastest half-century in this IPL.
Lucknow Super Giants wicket-keeper batsman and former West Indies captain Nicolas Pooran hit seven sixes and four boundaries to win the game for his side, as the young Indian batters Ayush Badoni made 30 from 24 balls with four boundaries.
It all came down to Lucknow Super Giants leading five more runs to win from the final over but they lost a couple of wickets and RCB bowler Harshal Patel then lost the opportunity to run out the non-striker Ravi Bishnoi, who won the game for LSG in the company Avesh Khan on the final ball of the contest.