The Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) pulled off a miraculous victory by chasing down 213 against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday.
Down at 23/3 in the fourth over, the duo of Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis (65 off 30) and Caribbean wicketkeeper-batsman Nicholas Pooran (62 off 19) propelled the visitors to a win from a seemingly impossible situation.
Pooran, particularly, came into bat in the 12th over with the required run rate climbing over 12 runs per over. The southpaw struck seven sixes along with four boundaries to take the game away from RCB with their frontline bowlers like Wayne Parnell and Harshal Patel leaking 41 and 48 runs respectively in their four-over spells.
23-year-old Ayush Badoni stuck around for 24 deliveries, scoring 30 runs and bagging four boundaries whilst bringing his team within touching distance of a victory before getting hit wicket in the penultimate over. The LSG top-order failed to step up in this massive chase with Kyle Mayers and Krunal Pandya getting dismissed for a duck and Deepak Hooda only scored nine runs batting at number three.
A lot of drama unfolded in the 20th over as Harshal Patel tried to run Ravi Bishnoi out at the non-striker’s end whereas wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik ended up fumbling an attempt to hit the stumps in the final delivery of the game. However, LSG kept at it in the chase despite losing steam early on and secured their third win of the campaign.
Dynamic RCB at Chinnaswamy
Earlier, RCB hit 212 whilst losing just a couple of wickets. Firstly, Virat Kohli took down the LSG pace attack in style particularly in the powerplay overs.
Kohli struck four boundaries and sixes each en route his 61 runs off 44 deliveries. His opening partner and skipper Faf du Plessis bided his time as long as Kohli was going great guns at the other end. When Kohli departed, Faf assumred greater responsibility and hit five boundaries and maximums each as he rounded off his innings unbeaten with a strike rate of 171.74 as he notched 79 runs in 46 deliveries.
Glenn Maxwell roared back into form and in some style as he raced to 59 runs in merely 29 balls, which included a whopping six sixes. Bowlers across both teams struggled to hit their lengths consistently as the batsmen undertook an attacking approach and capitalised on the shorter boundaries by taking on the opposition almost fearlessly at times.
Captain's Corner
“Disappointed. They played well through the middle. One ball one run. We backed ourselves to get a run-out. Just looking at the wicket, from 7-14 it was quite slower. The last five overs it started skidding on. Really good for some good cricketing shots. Stoinis and Pooran played everything off the middle,” RCB skipper reflected on the proceedings in the post-match presentation ceremony.
“This is the Chinnaswamy, only venue where so many last-ball finishes are possible. From the position we were in, to end up winning it, is superb. We had to go hard and the ball swung early, and they got 2-3 wickets to put the pressure on us. The only reason we got two points today is for the way the lower order batted,” LSG captain KL Rahul heaped praise on the performance of the lower middle-order.
(Edited by : Prakhar Sachdeo)
