LSG edge past RCB in final-ball thriller in Bangalore

The Indian Premier League served up another classic on Monday night at the Chinnaswamy Stadium as the Lucknow Super Giants chased down 212 with just one wicket to spare in an epic thriller in Bangalore. Glorious half-centuries from Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis, and Glenn Maxwell powered RCB to 212 for two in 20 overs, but Lucknow edged over the line of the final delivery of a roller-coaster run-chase after two superhuman efforts from Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran.

The game ebbed and flowed till the final ball of the chase, and Avesh Khan and Ravi Bishnoi scampered to complete the winning runs off Harshal Patel’s last delivery to take Lucknow to the top of the table.

The Chinnaswamy crowd were treated to some jaw-dropping shot-making throughout the 40 overs, and Virat Kohli provided the early entertainment as he took on the LSG pacers in the powerplay. Kohli slammed a career-high 42 runs in the powerplay, taking apart Avesh Khan, Jaydev Unadkat, and Mark Wood to take RCB to 56 in six overs.

The spinners briefly brought down the scoring rate through the middle overs, and Kohli perished after getting to his second half-century of the season for 61. However, Lucknow’s respite was temporary as Glenn Maxwell and Faf du Plessis turned on the heat in the final seven overs to take RCB past 200. The pair smashed three sixes in Bishnoi’s final over and carted 66 runs off the last 24 balls, bringing up their own half-centuries in the process to post an ominous total.

In response, Lucknow suffered early blows as Kyle Mayers chopped onto his stumps for a duck, while Wayne Parnell removed Deepak Hooda and Krunal Pandya in the same over on RCB debut. The visitors were reeling at 23 for 3 in four overs, but the Super Giants slowly began to mount a comeback as Marcus Stoinis started to find the middle of the bat. The Australian took 17 runs against Harshal Patel in the 8th over and tore into spinners Shahbaz Ahmed and Karn Sharma to bring up his half-century.

The game swung back in RCB’s favour with Stoinis and KL Rahul departing in quick succession, but Nicholas Pooran took over the scoring duties from the all-rounder and blazed away to the fastest half-century of IPL 2023 so far, taking 15 deliveries to get to his 50. The West Indian struck 7 sixes and 4 fours in his 19-ball innings but couldn’t take LSG over the line, holing out to deep square leg with 24 needed off 18.

The drama compounded off the final three overs. Ayush Badoni seemed to have levelled the scores for LSG with a six, only to disturb his own stumps on his follow-through to be dismissed hit-wicket, leaving seven runs required off the final eight balls. Defending five of the last over, Harshal Patel picked up two wickets to further raise the tension, but Ravi Bishnoi survived a Mankad attempt from the bowler and hurried through for a bye of the final delivery to secure a nail-biting victory for Lucknow with just one wicket to spare.