RCB beat Lucknow in home ground, also beat by 18 runs in small score match

Lucknow. Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) thrashed Lucknow Supergiants by 18 runs in a low-scoring Indian Premier League match here on Monday, thanks to a fine performance by the bowlers led by leg-spinner Karn Sharma. Chasing RCB’s target of 127 runs, the Supergiants team scored 108 in 19.5 overs in front of the sharp bowling of Karn (2/20), Josh Hazlewood (2/15) and Wanindu Hasaranga (1/20). Got confined to the run.

Mohammad Siraj, Harshal Patel and Glenn Maxwell also took one wicket each for the team. Only Krishnappa Gautam (23) was able to cross the 20-run mark from Supergiants. Amit Mishra scored 19 runs. Earlier, leg-spinners Ravi Bishnoi (2/21) and Amit Mishra (2/21), off-spinner Krishnappa Gautam (1/10) and left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya (21/0) Together, he gave only 73 runs in 13 overs and took five wickets, due to which RCB’s team could only score 126 runs for nine wickets.

Fast bowler Naveen-ul-Haq also took three wickets for 30 runs. Captain Faf Duplesey (44) was the top scorer for RCB. He added 62 runs for the first wicket with Virat Kohli (31) but after the break of this partnership, RCB’s innings faltered.

Apart from these two, only Dinesh Karthik (16) reached double digits. Chasing the target, the Lucknow team had a very bad start and the team lost four wickets for 27 runs from which the team could never recover. In the second over of RCB’s innings, Ayush Badoni came out to open the innings with Kyle Myers in place of skipper Lokesh Rahul who was injured while fielding.

On the second ball of Siraj’s innings, Myers (00) caught Anuj Rawat at mid-on. Krunal Pandya (14) hit Siraj for three consecutive fours but was caught by Kohli off Maxwell’s bowling. Hazlewood caught Badoni (04) at the hands of Kohli while Hasranga stumped Deepak Hooda (01) to give the hosts a fourth blow.

Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran hit sixes on Hazlewood and Hasaranga respectively as soon as they arrived. The Lucknow team could only manage 34 runs for four wickets in the powerplay. Puran also got caught by Mahipal Lomror by waving Karna’s ball in the air after scoring nine runs.

Gautam completed the half-century of the team’s runs in the ninth over with sixes and fours in consecutive balls of Karna. Gautam hit a straight six over Hasaranga but in an attempt to play a big shot off Karna, Stoinis (13) handed over a catch to Suyash Prabhudesai.

In the next over, Gautam was also run out, due to which the team’s score became 66 runs for seven wickets. Ravi Bishnoi (05) got a life on the ball of Mahipal Lomror but he was run out trying to take another run. Supergiants needed 48 runs in the last four overs to win.

17 runs were scored in the next two overs. The hosts needed 31 runs in the last two overs. Naveen-ul-Haq (13) hit Hazlewood for a four but was caught by Karthik on the next ball. Rahul came out to bat at number 11 but could not do any charisma and Harshal got Mishra caught by Karthik and gave his team victory. Du Plessis won the toss and elected to bat first, and along with Kohli got the team off to a cautious start. Both scored 42 runs in the power play without losing a wicket. Kohli opened the account with a four off the very first ball of the match from Krunal, while Du Plessis hit Naveen for the first six of the innings after seeing Marcus Stoinis’ ball for the boundary. The half-century of RCB runs was completed in the eighth over. The pressure of increasing the run rate was clearly visible on the batsmen and in an attempt to remove this pressure, Kohli was stumped by Bishnoi’s ball. He hit three fours while facing 30 balls. In front of the effective bowling of Lucknow, the RCB team could only manage 65 runs for one wicket in 10 overs. Anuj Rawat (09) also returned to the pavilion under pressure to increase the run rate. In an attempt to play a big shot off Gautam’s ball, he handed a catch to Myers at deep midwicket. Bishnoi lbw Maxwell (04) while Mishra caught Suyash Prabhudesai (06) at the hands of Gautam to take RCB to 90 for four. In the middle overs, RCB batsmen could not hit boundaries for 46 balls. Karthik ended the drought of boundaries with a four off Naveen and then hit Mishra for a six as well. Mishra, however, got Duplesey caught by Krunal in the same over. He hit a four and a six while facing 40 balls. Naveen then dismissed Mahipal Lomror (03), Karn Sharma (02) and Mohammad Siraj (00) while Karthik was run out.