IPL 2023: Stoinis, Pooran fifties lead Lucknow Super Giants to thrilling one-wicket win over RCB

Bengaluru: Lucknow Super Giants were 37/3 at the end of power-play, with Royal Challengers Bangalore on top of them in a run chase of 213 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium but Marcus Stoinis brought Lucknow back with his impressive 30-ball 65 while Nicholas Pooran smashed a sensational 19-ball 62 to take the team to a last-ball thrilling one-wicket victory, here on Monday.

Mohammed Siraj gave 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.

After ending the power-play at 37/3, 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.

Stoinis welcomed Karn Sharma with a pulled six over deep mid-wicket and struck a brace of fours, before bringing a lofted driven six over long-off against Shahbaz Ahmed to get his fifty in 25 balls. Stoinis hit a six each off Karn and Shahbaz, before slicing to deep point off the former.

Rahul never got going in his 18 off 20 balls and flicked straight to deep square leg off Siraj in the 12th over. 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.

Pooran 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.

Brief Scores: Royal Challengers Bangalore 212/2 in 20 overs (Faf du Plessis 79 not out, Virat Kohli 61; Amit Mishra 1/18, Mark Wood 1/32) lost to Lucknow Super Giants 213/9 in 20 overs (Marcus Stoinis 65, Nicholas Pooran 62; Wayne Parnell 3/41, Harshal Patel 2/48) by 1 wicket.