IPL 2023, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) vs Lucknow Super Giants (LSG): Glenn Maxwell-Faf du Plessis' 115-run stand, Nicholas Pooran's 62 off 19 and Mohammed Siraj's 3-22 are top performances. Lucknow beat RCB and move to first spot in points table.
Brief scores: LSG 213/9 (Stoinis 65, Pooran 62, Siraj 3/22) beat RCB 212/2 (Du Plessis 79*, Maxwell 59, Mishra 1/18) by 1-wicket.
Player of the Match: Nicholas Pooran (62 runs in 19 balls)
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) who were seventh on the points table with one victory and one defeat in their two games locked horns with the third placed Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), who had secured two victories in three games of the sixteenth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
In their couple of face-offs, both times RCB has come victorious.
LSG rises to the top with a thrilling victory of one wicket over RCB
Lucknow Super Giants captain KL Rahul, on winning the toss, opted to field on a track that looked little bit dry but solid for batting. RCB added Wayne Parnell and Mahipal Lomror while LSG brought back both Jaydev Unadkat and fit again Mark Wood.
Put into bat first, Royal Challengers Bangalore started decently with Virat Kohli smashing the ball all around the park to take them to 56/0 in the powerplay before LSG bowlers slowed them down to 87/0 at the halfway mark. Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell took them to 137/1 in 15 overs before their 115 run stand for the second wicket powered them to 212//2 in their allotted 20 overs.
Chasing a huge target, Lucknow did not begin well in the powerplay, losing their three key wickets to be reduced at 37/3 before a wild knock from Marcus Stoinis, 30-ball 65 runs carried them to 91/3 in 10 overs. Nicholas Pooran’s carnage raced them to 171/5 in 15 overs. Wickets at the end made the game close but LSG kept their nerve to script a thrilling one wicket victory.
Poor bowling for RCB continues while KL Rahul plays another slow knock
It was really poor bowling from the home side even after getting the opposition 23/3 in four overs. At one point they kept Lucknow Supergiants to 43/3 in seven overs before losing the momentum and gave away 146/3 in the next 10 overs which was mostly because of some wayward bowling along with short ball theory.
LSG captain KL Rahul played some slow knocks so far in the tournament and he needs to increase the pace in the powerplay.
Let’s scan the top three performances from the game between RCB and LSG in IPL 2023
Firing 115-run stand of Du Plessis-Maxwell blew away LSG
Even though RCB began in a rapid pace with 56 runs coming in the first six overs, they slowed down in the middle to reach 99/1 in 12 overs when Glenn Maxwell joined Faf du Plessis who wasn’t timing the ball sweetly being unbeaten on 32 off 26 balls.
Maxwell began on a positive note smashing Amit Mishra over cover for a four before powering him over long-on for a six. Du Plessis got into the business slapping Ravi Bishnoi over long-off for a six before backing it up with a 115-meter over boundary against the same bowler over long-on. Faf now has unbeaten 90 T20 runs in 56 balls against Bishnoi while Maxwell who crunched him down the ground for a six now has unbeaten 36 T20 runs in 17 balls in their face-off.
With a six over long-off, Du Plessis celebrated his 27th IPL fifty before punching Unadkat over deep mid-on for back-to-back sixes to now have 70 T20 runs in 33 balls against the left-arm pace bowler. Maxwell nailed Avesh Khan for a six over his head before sending him over the fence in the deep cover region to register his 14th IPL fifty. He now has 47 unbeaten T20 runs in 23 balls against Avesh as both Du Plessis and Maxwell put up a 115-run stand to take RCB over 200-run mark.
Faf who remained on 79* with five boundaries and as many as sixes, now has 3578 IPL runs in 119 games while Maxwell who got out on 59 shouldering on three boundaries and six sixes, has 2395 IPL runs in 113 games at a strike rate of 154.92.
Pooran changed the fate of the game with 19-ball 62 runs
After the dismissal of Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran walked into the middle who spoke about how their team gave him the responsibility to play his natural aggressive game.
Pooran began with a six against Karn Sharma over long-off before cutting Mohammad Siraj through square leg over a boundary. Pooran cracked two back-to-back sixes against Karn Sharma through square leg and deep extra cover for two more sixes, so as to have 19 T20 runs in five balls against him. He nailed Harshal Patel over fine-leg and deep backward square leg for couple of sixes before celebrating his fifth IPL fifty which became the fastest of this season in 15 balls with a six over long-on against Wayne Parnell.
David Willey too was punished by him over square leg for another over boundary as the left-handed batter changed the course of the game in a blink of an eye.
Nicholas Pooran who cracked a match winning 62-run knock in 19 balls thanks to seven sixes and four boundaries now has 1053 IPL runs in 51 games at a strike rate of 157.87.
Mohammad Siraj showed his class with 3/22 in high scoring game
Mohammad Siraj has been excellent for RCB with the new ball taking early wickets and he did that exactly.
On his third ball of the game, Siraj disturbed the furniture of Kyle Mayers on a three-ball duck before coming back and sending the opponent captain KL Rahul back in the hut on 18 who flicked the ball straight to the square leg fielder.
He almost changed the fate of the game with the dismissal of Nicholas Pooran on 62 who pulled the low full toss straight to the backward square leg fielder. Pooran has just 10 T20 runs against Siraj in nine balls besides one dismissal.
Siraj finished with 3/22 in four overs to now have 64 IPL wickets in 68 games.
Read More: IPL 2023, LSG v DC: Super Giants decimate Capitals, courtesy Wood's magnificent 5-wicket haul
Points table scenario and what’s next
With their third win, LSG rises to the top with six points at a net run rate of +1.048 while RCB go down to number seven with a NRR of -0.80.
Delhi Capitals will face Mumbai Indians on April 11 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.
IPL 2023 Points Table after RCB vs LSG game
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