IPL 2023, LSG vs RCB Emotional Rollercoaster: KL hobbles off, bizarre net string messes up Jaydev Unadkat and Kohli’s Kamal Guna moment

Kohli’s Kamal Guna moment
There’s a scene in Kamal Haasan’s Guna movie in 1991 where the mentally-unbalanced hero in his quest to marry a goddess to cleanse himself of the sins jumps up and down at his first darshan of her. It’s a shot that would have stayed in the minds of the watchers, an expression of ecstasy on Kamal’s face. Virat Kohli would do his version of that jump with more than just ecstasy on his face when Deepak Hooda fell. Kohli was grouped with his team-mates, waiting for DRS to confirm that Dinesh Karthik had stumped Hooda. And as the confirmation came, up jumped Kohli. Up and down, and up. He turned his face towards Hooda, and had the usual Kohli moment, triggering Robin Uthappa on air to say, “I am a great fan of him but not that”.
Kohli catches & blows kisses
Ayush Badoni’s uppish drive to covers off Josh Hazlewood’s first ball of his second over went sharply to Virat Kohli. Kohli leapt at the precise time to send back the youngster for 4 off 11 as Lucknow were left reeling at 27/3 after the brilliant catch. He would blow kisses in celebration. Moments earlier Kohli stationed at long off had snapped up standin skipper Krunal Pandya, who tried to chip it after striding forth for Lucknow’s second wicket. Fing his heart Kohli turned to the crowd and blew kisses – repeating the celebration a while later. RCB looked like they could make good with their meagre total, with their fielders holding on to the catches.

Victory in Lucknow for @RCBTweets!
A remarkable bowling performance from #RCB as they bounce back in style 👏🏻👏🏻
Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/jbDXvbwuzm #TATAIPL | #LSGvRCB pic.twitter.com/HBDia6KEaX
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 1, 2023
Maxwell inning stubbed
It was the dot ball, a top spinner, before the wicket delivery that might have been responsible. Glenn Maxwell committed to the shot way too early. It was a fast flat googly on the middle from Ravi Bishnoi, and Maxwell tried to reverse sweep it, got hit on the pads, and was given lbw straight away the umpire. He would review it for height, and ultra edge showed no bat skimming the ball. Ball tracking would confirm what the umpire had given out, Big Show gone for 4. After getting Kohli stumped, Bishnoi had cleaved open RCB’s big three top order, gaining an entry into the iffy middle order. Captain Faf would need to steady the ship here, even as the spinners were wreaking havoc with Amit Mishra sending back Prabhudesai for 6 off 7.
Bizarre net string messes up Jaydev Unadkat
When you pitch the nets tent, the rope is usually outside the nets. But Lucknow Super Giants had it pitched inside the nets for some strange reason – and Jaydev Unadkat suffered. A piece of string was inside the crease. He had just about released a ball, and stumbled a touch on landing, and bizarrely his left foot got trapped in the rope – and he fell on his shoulder. And injured it. On air, Anil Kumble, Brett Lee, and Scott Styris were gobsmacked at how that string was tied inside the nets. Kumble would talk about how when he was the Punjab coach, the acute angle of Ravi Bishnoi’s run-up would make them so wary of how to place the net, keeping in mind for him. “It’s stupid to have that string out there, the groundsmen have a lot to answer for,” Brett Lee gave his verdict.
In the game, KL Rahul too would suffer a hammy, the looks of it, pulling up badly when chasing the ball. Both players are in the India squad for the WTC final. It remains to be seen how the respective injuries heal and how fast.

KL hobbles off
KL Rahul hobbled off the field on the last ball of the second over after pulling what looked like a hamstring. A Marcus Stoinis delivery was punched through the covers Faf du Plessis and it was searing quick to the fence, with Rahul in pursuit. Just short of the boundary though, he winced in pain and went down holding his leg. A stretcher was called for, but sent back as Rahul limped back struggling clearly after getting up with huge effort. Krunal Pandya would take over the captaincy, but it didn’t look very good for the India batter.
Big spin and bounce
There was spin and bounce right from Ball 1 and that explained why the left arm leggie Krunal would open the proceedings for Lucknow Super Giants. Coach Sanjay Bangar had spoken prior to the match how LSG were prone to using spin with the new ball and had done the same at Chinnaswamy when RCB lost their last face-off, leading to practicing in the nets against tweakers in the nets at Ekana. When Krunal landed the first delivery outside off it spun away prodigiously, and a Kohli prod went past backward point for a 4. On the final delivery of the first over, a quicker one jumped on Faf du Plessis.