IPL 2023: Lucknow script big last-ball chase against RCB

IPL 2023: Pooran & Stoinis heroics help Lucknow script horic run chase as RCB bowling fails to defend big score

. . 🤯🤯🤯@LucknowIPL pull off a last-ball win!
A roller-coaster of emotions in Bengaluru 🔥🔥
Follow the match ▶️ https://t.co/76LlGgKZaq#TATAIPL | #RCBvLSG pic.twitter.com/96XwaYaOqT
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 10, 2023
Marcus Stoinis walked out into the middle at 23-3 in the fifth over as the Lucknow Super Giants chased a mammoth total of 213. KL Rahul failed to find connection or timing – managing a disappointing 18 from 20 balls that will not ease the questions around his form – and most of Lucknow’s top order had been eaten up the new ball.
And then, Stoinis, in tandem with Nicholas Pooran, tore up the script.
The Australian displayed the full strength of his easy power. He stormed to a 35-ball 60 with 11 boundaries, five of which sailed into the stands, and utterly shocked Bangalore, whose bowling proved to be as frail as their batting had looked dominant in the first innings.
Stoinis’ wicket came at a time when Bangalore were still in a commanding position, but Pooran picked up where the Aussie left, and began walloping the ball to all parts of the ground.

Fastest FIFTY of the season now belongs to @nicholas_47 😎
He’s playing a blinder of a knock here 🔥🔥
What a turnaround this with the bat for @LucknowIPL 🙌
Follow the match ▶️ https://t.co/76LlGgKZaq#TATAIPL | #RCBvLSG pic.twitter.com/1oMIADixPh
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 10, 2023
Stoinis had helped himself to a quickfire half-century largely thanks to the great power he wields, but Pooran’s innings was all about timing and manipulation of the field. The West Indian could bend his back leg to position himself well outside off stump and sweep a fuller length delivery for six over backward square leg, and then slice a boundary off his back foot over third man on the next one. Balance met power met a wide array of shot-making to hit one of the all-time great IPL innings in a run chase, before Pooran departed after hitting 62 from 19 balls.
But more tws were left in the tale.
With seven needed in the penultimate over, Ayush Badoni’s swept six over deep backward point was nullified after he absent-mindedly knocked over his own stumps. Five were needed from the last over as Harshal Patel helped himself to two wickets, leaving one run to get off the last ball.
High drama ensued as Harshal looked to knock the bails off at the non-striker’s end as he ran up, to catch Ravi Bishnoi out of his crease, but missed the wicket entirely. The final ball would then miss the wicket and the bat, and Dinesh Karthik would fumble as Lucknow would run a e to seal, just about, the fifth-highest run chase in IPL hory.
Kohli’s early blitz
Two uncharacterically mimed early shots defined Virat Kohli’s innings on Monday.
The first, on the second ball of the innings – a charge down the wicket and heave over extra cover from the toe end of the bat – landed safely. The second, in the second over, pulling a shorter-length delivery from Avesh Khan square of the wicket, resulted in a lucky top edge for six. Off the next ball, Kohli hit a perfectly-timed cover drive for four, and never looked back.
A lot of the criticism of Kohli as a modern-day T20 batsman has been centred around his lack of aggression in the Powerplay, where only two fielders outside the circle allows greater risk-taking. It has been a trend evident in each of the matches in the IPL so far – according to ESPNCricinfo, 28.7% of first-innings runs in the first 10 matches of this season have come in the first six overs.
Kohli duly obliged the trend. His typically eye-pleasing drives raced to the off-side boundary, and his strength on the backfoot, slapping the spin of Krunal Pandya, and against outright pace of Mark Wood for sixes over mid-on, was evident. Even as skipper Faf du Plessis failed to get going, Bangalore raced to 56-0 in the Powerplay thanks to Kohli’s early flourish.
Lucknow captain Rahul knew he needed to tame Kohli after the Powerplay, and his use of spinners did the trick to some extent. Pandya was joined Bishnoi to turn the ball from both ends as Kohli, and Du Plessis in particular, struggled to maintain the early momentum. There were only three boundaries between the sixth and 12th overs, when Kohli eventually departed at the hands of Amit Mishra (the IPL’s ultimate ‘he’s still around?’ player).
Thanks to mammoth back-to-back sixes, one of which went a jaw-dropping 115 metres, against Bishnoi in the 15th over, Du Plessis, who had laboured to 33 from 31 balls at the time, came to life to hit an unbeaten 46-ball 76. But it was Glenn Maxwell’s 59 of 29 that proved to be the most vital innings.
The Australian displayed his wide variety of shots – hitting six sixes slicing wide yorkers over cover, as well as slapping balls in his arc over long on – that has made him one of the most sought-after international middle-order batsmen in the IPL over the last decade. Pandya dropping him before he hit an additional three sixes in the 18th over, did not help Lucknow’s case.
However, even Maxwell’s brilliant late flurry was not enough. Ultimately, Bangalore cannot help but rue the errors they made. The target of 212 was a huge one, but they would have probably felt 20-odd runs short due to a mid-innings lull overseen Kohli and Du Plessis. Their bowling was simply unconvincing from all quarters, only David Willey and Siraj managed to keep their economy rate under 10.
With six of RCB’s first eight matches at home (due to the Karnataka elections), a solution for their problems with the ball, especially at the death, is desperately needed.