Often when a team scores 212 for 2, as Royal Challengers Bangalore did on Monday against Lucknow Supergiants, the result is a foregone conclusion. But Monday night was vastly different at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
The Supergiants produced a performance that matched their team’s name to register a stunningly dramatic 1-wicket victory in their IPL 2023 match.
It came with all the twists and turns. At 23 for 3 in 4 overs, LSG seemed ready to cave in and the RCB also might have lulled into that thought that a win was well within their grasp. It was not entirely faulty though at that stage.
But RCB were rudely awaken from their reverie first by Marcus Stoinis (65 off 30 balls, 6x4, 5x6) and then by Nicholas Pooran (62 off 19 balls, 4x4, 7x6), and that innings also contained the fastest fifty yet of this year’s IPL.
Pooran turns the game on its head
Pooran, the West Indies white ball teams’ captain, beat the 19-ball mark set by Ajinkya Rahane of Chennai Super Kings a couple of days ago.
The Supergiants were not even remotely close to the eventual result when Stoinis got out in the 11th over, as the board read 99 for 4. But Pooran played a glittering innings full of beautifully timed shots, especially against leggie Karn Sharma.
When Mohammad Siraj dismissed Pooran, the LSG were closing in on victory at 189 for 6, meaning they needed 24 runs from 18 balls with 4 wickets remaining.
Soon Ayush Badoni had to walk back to the hut after getting dismissed hit wicket off Wayne Parnell with LSG needing 7 more runs to win. But Ravi Bishnoi and Avesh Khan, the 10th wicket pair, somehow held their nerve to collect the winning run off the last ball to bring curtains to an endlessly entertaining night.
Kohli, Faf fire all guns blazing
But the whole scenario was so different once the Royal Challengers finished their innings as Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell gave a masterclass in power hitting.
Kohli and captain Faf du Plessis, particularly the former, started the Bangalore innings on a strong note as they reached 56 for no loss in the Power Play.
Faf struggled for timing on this part of his innings but Kohli raced on like a turbocharged car as RCB did not feel the pinch of one batsman going a tad dull at one end.
Kohli appeared every inch as that arrogant batsman who looks to dominate the bowlers and it was a sight to behold as well. But a rather forced shot off Amit Mishra brought the downfall of Kohli for 61 off 44 balls.
In the 12th over, RCB were 96 for 1 and they had to shift one or two gears up in the remaining 8 overs to reach a total that could give some extra cushioning to the bowlers, considering the nature of pitch and the short boundaries.
Faf (79 off 46 balls, 5x5, 5x6) regained his touch at the right time, indicated by a gigantic 115-metre six off leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi, and in the company of equally marauding Maxwell (59 off 29 balls, 3x4, 6x6) did precisely that.
They raised a 100-run stand in just 44 balls to knock the stuffing out of LSG bowling.
But that withering attack did not tire out the Lucknow outfit as they believed in themselves to hunt down the target.
