Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated Lucknow Super Giants by 18 runs.
Faf du Plessis scored 96 and Josh Hazlewood picked 4 wickets.
RCB move up to second spot in the IPL Table.
Faf du Plessis played a captain’s knock at the top of the order for Royal Challengers Bangalore and then Josh Hazlewood led the bowling attack, picking 4 wickets to derail the Lucknow Super Giants at the DY Patil Stadium.
RCB won the game by 18 runs as Lucknow could not get their act going during the chase.
Batting first, RCB had a horror start as Dushmantha Chameera’s opening over yielded the wickets of Anuj Rawat for 4 and Virat Kohli for a golden duck. Glenn Maxwell walked in much earlier than he would have liked and with captain Faf du Plessis started to rebuild in their own unique way.
Maxwell was off the blocks quickly, yet again displaying his abilities to produce the big hits at the drop of a hat. Maxwell and Faf put on a quickfire 37 before the Australian was dismissed for 23 by Krunal Pandya, with a bit of help from Jason Holder, who took a brilliant catch at short-third man.
Young Suyash Prabhudesai could only add 10 to the cause before Holder sent him packing in the 8th over. Faf at the other end was being watchful and setting up to bat through the innings.
Shahbaz Ahmed then stepped up to the plate and along with Faf set-up the platform for a big finish. The duo started off with a good over off Marcus Stoinis, and then continued to build in the middle phase of the innings. At the half-way stage, RCB were 87/4 with the skipper looking good.
Faf du Plessis played a brilliant hand against LSG
Image: BCCI
The batters went on to post RCB’s biggest partnership, adding 70 important runs from 48 balls. While Shahbaz fed his captain the strike, Faf started to cut loose and brought up his fifty in the 14th over. And a couple of overs later, Shahbaz was run out for 26, with the score on 132/5 and Dinesh Karthik walking in to join Faf.
Along expected lines, DK looked to attack from the get-go and Faf was piling on the misery from the other end, as both dealt in boundaries. The duo put on 49 off 27 balls, to drive RCB eyed the 200-run mark. However, Faf fell off the penultimate ball of the innings for 96 when Holder struck again and DK remained unbeaten on 13, with RCB getting 181/6.
In response, Lucknow and Quinton de Kock had a rather painful start before the South African was dismissed by Josh Hazlewood for 3. KL Rahul at the other end was doing what he does best – setting up for another big knock in a potentially tricky chase.
Rahul and Manish Pandey looked to get a move on with a 16-run stand. However, Hazlewood packed off Pandey for 6, leaving Lucknow in a small bit of bother.
Lucknow were finding it difficult to get the momentum going, and Rahul and Krunal for company, but even they could not make too much of an impact. Rahul and Krunal added 31 off 18 balls, before Harshal Patel, a DRS call and a slight edge of the bat came together to dismiss the skipper for 30 off 24 balls.
Rahul’s wicket was a big set back for Lucknow and quite a morale booster for RCB, just after the powerplay. Krunal was joined by Deepak Hooda, and the duo managed a few lusty hits, but RCB were keeping things tight and the pressure was building as the required run-rate started to move upwards.
Lucknow ticked off another cameo partnership with the Krunal-Hooda combination adding 36 from 27 deliveries before Maxwell and Mohammed Siraj dismissed them, respectively. Krunal scored 42 and Hooda managed 13.
Lucknow, even with their backs to the wall, had Ayush Badoni and Stoinis in the middle, and by no means were out of it yet. In the final five overs, the two batters had to get 65 more to win the game.
RCB’s bowlers though had other ideas, and even though Badoni and Stoinis were throwing their bats at everything, Hazlewood struck again, removing the youngster for 13 in the 17th over.
In the penultimate over of the game, Hazlewood struck again, knocking over Stoinis for 24. The Australian pacer finished with his best figures (4/25) in the IPL, wrapping up his spell with a 3-run over.
Holder tried his best in the final over with 31 needed, and hammered a couple of sixes before becoming Harshal Patel's second wicket of the day. Harshal finished with a dot ball as RCB won by 18 runs.
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