Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) achieved their second successive win in the 2024 edition of the IPL as they beat the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) by 28 runs at M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday, April 2. Lucknow basically showed a way to the other teams how to put a sizeable total on the two-paced surfaces of Bengaluru with a set batter batting till 15th over and a finisher giving the momentum at the death before the bowlers run riot in the middle overs to complete an all-round performance as RCB have now a few questions to search answers for in the remaining games.
At the halfway mark, considering how RCB pulled it back with the ball despite Nicholas Pooran hitting five sixes in the final two overs, 182 felt like a chasable total, especially with the way Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli began. Lucknow Super Giants deployed their slow left-arm orthodox match-up with M Siddharth and Krunal Pandya opening the bowling. Both Kohli and du Plessis were patient enough before getting those boundaries and going hell for leather against Naveen ul Haq in the fourth over.
However, what followed in the last two overs was a car crash of monumental proportions. Kohli got a boundary against Siddharth on the first ball of his third over before lofting it straight to the backward point fielder. In the very next over, bowled by Mayank Yadav, Faf got run out and Glenn Maxwell trying to fight fire with fire mistimed straight to short mid-off.
RCB were suddenly three down. If that wasn't enough, Cameron Green was dismissed in the next over too as Mayank was basically taking RCB for a ride, on which he took Punjab Kings a couple of nights ago.
Anuj Rawat struggled to get going before Rajat Patidar finally showed signs of why he is such a promising talent by hitting a few lusty blows. But wickets of both of them in quick succession didn't help and Mayank accounted for Patidar as well to cap off a brilliant three-wicket spell.
Mahipal Lomror, out of nowhere smashed 32 off 10 to keep RCB's hopes alive, however, Naveen ul Haq and Yash Thakur closed out the innings and finished what began with Mayank's spell in the powerplay as Lucknow continued to be the strongest defending team in the IPL.
Earlier, it was the pair of southpaws, Quinton de Kock and Nicholas Pooran who took Lucknow to a par-plus total on that wicket, which was gripping and holding up a bit with the bounce as well. De Kock started like Ferrari in the powerplay but slowed down later in the middle overs. However, Nicholas Pooran with 33 runs in the last two overs helped LSG get the finish they wanted when Topley and Yash Dayal led RCB's comeback with a wicket each and 2 and five runs respectively in 17th and 18th overs.
