By CS Chiwanza.
Nicholas Pooran was in exquisite form as they led Lucknow Super Giants to a thrilling one-wicket win in a nail-biter over Royal Challengers Bangalore in their Tata Indian Premier League match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, on Monday.
LSG scored the winning runs on the last ball, and it is the third time that this has happened in the IPL. This is also the third time in IPL history that RCB has lost a match after scoring 200 or more runs.
A trio of half-centuries from Faf du Plessis (79* off 46), Virat Kohli (61 off 44) and Glenn Maxwell (59 off 29) helped RCB to reach 212 for two in 20 overs. But that was not enough to put the score beyond LSG’s impressive middle order.
After a dreadful start, Stoinis brought LSG back into the game by bludgeoning six fours and five sixes on his way to a brilliant 65 off 30 balls. Pooran picked up from where Stoinis had left off by hitting four fours and seven sixes for his 62 off 19 deliveries.
Pooran and Stoinis exposed RCB’s frailties with the ball and also made RCB rue the balls Virat Kohli used up when he slowed down just as he was about to reach his 46th IPL half-century. Kohli started his innings like a house on fire but slowed down as he approached the milestone, his last 19 runs came off 19 deliveries.
Faf du Plessis also used up a lot of deliveries early on in his innings. The South African looked scratchy and was unable to find his timing during the early part of his innings. Du Plessis’ first 20 runs came off 20 deliveries. Maxwell was the only player who started well. The Australian’s quickfire half-century was instrumental in getting RCB over 200. Thanks to his big hitting, RCB scored 75 runs in the last five overs.
RCB must have thought they had the match in the bag after their bowlers, Mohammed Siraj, Wayne Parnell and Andrew Willey dominated the PowerPlay. Siraj dismissed Kyle Mayers for a three-ball duck, and Wayne Parnell marked his return to the IPL with a double strike in his first over as RCB restricted LSG to 37 for three after the PowerPlay.
However, LSG was not going to lie down and let RCB steamroll them. Marcus Stoinis was in a belligerent mood. The Australian allrounder did not take long to get going as he raced to a fifth IPL half-century as he mounted a counter-attacking knock. Stoinis needed a mere 25 deliveries to bring up the milestone.
Stoinis handed the baton to Nicholas Pooran when he was dismissed. Pooran grabbed it and ran faster than Stoinis. The West Indies player got off the mark with a six. Pooran did not look back as he raced to the fastest half-century of the season. Pooran’s fifth IPL half-century came off 15 balls. When Pooran came to the crease, LSG needed just under 13 runs an over, and LSG needed to go at a-run-a-ball when he was dismissed.
Pooran and Stoinis’ aggressive batting was good enough to make up for KL Rahul’s pedestrian run rate. The LSG captain scored 18 off 20.
Just when it looked like the game had no more twists and turns to offer, Ayush Badoni got himself dismissed, hit wicket, with eight balls to go. LSG needed six runs to win. A couple of deliveries later, Harsha Patel kept RCB’s hope alive by dismissing Mark Wood to claim his 100th IPL wicket. Patel is now the fastest bowler to reach the milestone. There was more drama when Harshal took his second wicket with one ball to go, LSG was in need of one run to win.
On the last delivery, it looked like the match might go to a super over, but RCB could not hold their nerve. Dinesh Kartik fumbled a run-out opportunity and Ravi Bishnoi and Avesh Khan scampered through for a single to seal victory for the visitors.
Mohammed Siraj was outstanding for RCB with the ball. He took three wickets for 22 runs in four overs. Wayne Parnell also took three wickets, but was rather expensive, going at 10.25 runs an over.
ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis (capt), Mahipal Lomror, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Anuj Rawat, David Willey, Wayne Parnell, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj. The subs are: Karn, Prabhudessai, Deep, Bracewell and Sonu Yadav.
LUCKNOW SUPER GIANTS KL Rahul (capt), Kyle Mayers, Deepak Hooda, Marcus Stoinis, Krunal Pandya, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Jaydev Unadkat, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan, Mark Wood, Ravi Bishnoi. The subs are: Badoni, Swapnil, Gowtham, Mankad, Sams.