In a thrilling match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Lucknow Super Giants, Lucknow emerged victorious by one wicket. At the end of the power-play, Lucknow were struggling at 37/3 in a run chase of 213 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. However, Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran played brilliantly to bring Lucknow back into the game. Stoinis scored an impressive 30-ball 65 while Pooran smashed a sensational 19-ball 62 to take the team to a last-ball thrilling victory.
The match began with Mohammed Siraj giving Bangalore an ideal start as Kyle Mayers chopped on to his stumps. Wayne Parnell dealt double blows to Lucknow in the fourth over, having Deepak Hooda nick behind a cutter to Dinesh Karthik and then forcing Krunal Pandya to edge off an outswinger to the keeper.
Stoinis began his onslaught in the eighth over by flicking off the pads for six off Harshal Patel, then slashed through point and smacked a straight drive down the ground for back-to-back fours. He hit a six each off Karn and Shahbaz, before slicing to deep point off the former.
Pooran began his blitz with a classic square cut off Siraj, with Ayush Badoni taking a four too off him. While Badoni flicked Karn off his legs for four, Pooran upped the ante with successive sixes. He teared into Harshal by slamming pulled sixes over fine leg and deep backward square, apart from a four cut through short third man. Parnell came under attack from Pooran, with the left-hander slicing him twice for fours apart from a six whacked over long-on which got him his fifty in just 15 balls.
Badoni was lucky in an outside edge flying over short third man for four off Willey while Pooran ended the 16th over with a magnificent swing over deep square leg for six. Pooran’s blitzkrieg came to an end in the 17th over when he picked out the deep backward square leg off a full toss from Siraj.
Jaydev Unadkat guided a yorker past keeper for four off Harshal while Badoni pulled Parnell for another boundary. Badoni moved across to scoop a six off Parnell, but his bat crashed into the stumps to be out hit-wicket.
As Bangalore fielded four fielders outside the circle in the final over due to over rate penalty, Harshal added more drama by castling Mark Wood and had Unadkat holing out to a juggling long-on. After Harshal’s attempt to run out Ravi Bishnoi and later running him out wasn’t successful, a fumble from Karthik behind allowed Bishnoi and Avesh Khan to go for a leg-bye, taking Lucknow to a thrilling victory.
In summary, Lucknow Super Giants beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by one wicket in a thrilling match of IPL 2023. Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran played brilliantly to bring Lucknow back into the game and secure the victory.
