Royal Challengers Bangalore defeats Lucknow Super Giants in a low-scoring match by 18 runs

3 years AGO
Virat
Virat Verma Cricket expert
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Royal Challengers Bangalore did a great job as they defended a low total against Lucknow Super Giants

Royal Challengers Bangalore portrayed brilliant teamwork as they didn’t let Lucknow Super Giants reach the target of 127. With the 18-run win, Faf du Plessis’ side is now at 10 points.

As the match was taking place at the Ekana Cricket Stadium, a less-run thriller was expected by the fans. Consequently, when Faf won the toss, they took the decision of batting first. 

As the match got underway, Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis made their way towards the ground. The majority of the power plays this season have been dominated by batters, but Royal Challengers’ opening pair were not able to hit big following the immense use of spin by KL Rahul’s side.

However, an unfortunate event took place in the last ball of the second over as KL Rahul pulled up his thigh muscle while he was chasing the ball over the covers following a decent shot from Faf du Plessis. He had to limp off the ground with the help of his physio and a teammate. 

RCB built a solid opening partnership with no breakthroughs given to the LSG bowlers in the first eight overs. However, finally, in the ninth over, Ravi Bishnoi got the first breakthrough of the match for the Supergiants by taking the wicket of Kohli. Following him, Anuj Rawat was also sent back by Krishnappa Gowtham after playing another underwhelming innings.

In the 13th over, Bishnoi captured his second wicket of the match as he dismissed Glenn Maxwell. The spin attack of Lucknow was working wonders as the batters were constantly falling into similar traps. Playing run-a-ball, du Plessis also went back to the pavilion scoring 44 off 40 deliveries with the team reaching 110. 

Dinesh Karthik looked good in the match as he can play spin without any troubles, but unluckily, Yash Thakur’s brilliant fielding became the reason for his undoing as he had to walk back after scoring 16 runs. 

Lucknow Supergiants already lost a low-scoring run chase against Gujarat Titans when they failed to accumulate 135 runs

Instead of scoring runs, Faf’s men lost consecutive wickets in the last few overs and gave a target of 127 runs to Lucknow, albeit on a challenging wicket.

Instead of Rahul, Ayush Badoni came to open the innings along with Kyle Mayers. In the first over, Mohammed Siraj gave Royal Challengers Bangalore a breakthrough by taking the important wicket of Mayers. The West Indies all-rounder went back to the pavilion for a duck. 

Following the first wicket, LSG managed to score only two runs in the first couple of overs. Consequently, Krunal Pandya took charge of making runs, but he wasn’t able to score much as he was dismissed at the score of 14 runs by Maxwell.

Josh Hazelwood dismissed Badoni as the Delhi-born batter lost his wicket scoring 4 runs off 11 deliveries. Wanindu Hasaranga and Karn Sharma joined the party as they also took the important wickets of Deepak Hooda and Nicholas Pooran to haunt Lucknow at its extreme. After seven overs, LSG’s score was 38/5. 

As the wickets were falling constantly, Gowtham scored a couple of maximums and a four in Hasaranga as well as Sharma’s overs. And when it felt like Marcus Stoinis and Gowtham would lead the team to victory, Sharma sent the Australian all-rounder back to the pavilion. 

In the next over, the situation became worse for Lucknow as Gowtham got run out while taking the second run. The Indian batsman would have saved himself from going back to the pavilion if he would have added more effort whilst running or would have dived.

The tailenders tried their best to score a few runs here and there, but all of their attempts went into vain. 

However, KL Rahul had to come out of the ground after Naveen-ul-Haq was dismissed by Josh Hazelwood but he also wasn’t able to add anything to the innings. Hence, getting all-out at 108, Lucknow lost the match by 18 runs. 

Hazelwood and Karn Sharma took two wickets each while other bowlers also picked a single wicket. Royal Challengers were happy with the win as the RCB skipper was named the player of the match.

The Lucknow Supergiants don’t have much time to look back on how things turned out on Monday night as they host title-favorites Chennai Super Kings on Wednesday afternoon. Meanwhile, RCB will next face Delhi Capitals and a win in the capital will boost Virat Kohli’s chances of lifting the IPL trophy for the first time in his career.