Lucknow Super Giants pull off thrilling win after Pooran, Stoinis blitz and dramatic finish
Lucknow Super Giants turned it around in the final few overs as they registered the highest chase of the IPL this season
Lucknow Super Giants turned it around in the final few overs as they registered the highest chase of the IPL this season
Scorer: Ranjith P | Commentator: Abhimanyu Bose
12am So that's all the incredible action from the Chinnaswamy today. Some incredible batting on display (and a really good spell of bowling too, from Mohammed Siraj). Kohli and Faf were good, Maxwell played some freak shots but it was all about Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran. Himanshu's report will be in and I am sure there will be plenty of great reading to catch up on the action if you missed the game. For now, signing off on behalf of Himanshu, Ranjith and everyone else at ESPNcricinfo, this is Abhimanyu saying goodnight.
11.50pm Time for the presentation ceremony.
Unsrurprisingly, the POTM is Nicholas Pooran: This is for my wife and newborn. We needed to win that game. That partnership between Stoiny and KL was wonderful. Stoinis kept us in the game. We knew that in the back end of the game it gets easier. The wicket was really nice to bat on. It was all about cashing in and getting the execution right. My second ball went for a six so it put me in a nice position. I've been working really hard on my game. This is where I want to be. I spent the last couple of years frustrating myself trying to win games for my team. I'm in a really good space, I'm in a really good state of mind and I just want to enjoy cricket. Have fun, keep a smile and do what's needed for my team."
LSG captain, KL Rahul: "Unbelievable. I mean it's the Chinnaswamy. I've grown up here and I think it's the stadium with most last-ball finishes. From the position we were in. We were chasing 210+ and we knew we had to go hard and attack but sometimes when you do that you lose wickets. They bowled well in the powerplay, they swung it well. But the way Stoin and Pooran played, if we have two points today it's because of them. If I score more runs, the strike-rate will go up. I looked at the situation and I feel I had done the right thing. If I had stayed in and played with Pooran, we would have won it easier. Hopefully with a couple of good knocks the strike rate will go up. If you look at the middle order, No. 5, 6 and 7, they win you the crunch games. The top order will get the bulk of runs but it's those positions that matter and that's why we invested in power in Pooran, Stoinis and Badoni. And Badoni is learning to finish games."
11.36pm What high drama at the Chinnaswamy! Chasing 213, LSG got off to a horror start thanks to Siraj's brilliant opening spell and then Parnell took two to compound the misery. But then Marcus Stoinis went on a rampage. After he fell, Nicholas Pooran took over and played an even more devastating innings. But as wickets fell at the death -- including Ayush Badoni getting hit-wicket as he hit a six -- RCB thought they had a chance. Harshal Patel, bowling the last over got Mark Wood out first and then Ravi Bishnoi got three runs off the next two balls. When Unadkat holed out with LSG needing 1 off two, RCB still had a chance to survive. Harshal tried a RONSBU, but failed, and then Dinesh Karthik fumbled to allow LSG a bye. So that's two nail-biting finishes in two days and two 200-plus scores chased down in two days! Indeed, as Matt Roller says, it's been a wham-bang season so far!
Stoinis: "I think it was a beautiful pitch. When I came in we were 3 for 20 but I knew I had to attack. I think we need to speak to the IPL about this new rule change with the X-Factor rule coming in. It's taken me out of the equation with the ball. It's good for some, not so good for the others [chuckles]. It's good to contribute to the team. We're a young franchise. This year we hadn't won away from home yet and it's important to get off to a good start. I actually think we bowled really well in the powerplay. There was some beautiful shots from Virat and Faf. I thought we bowled well. But history suggests that 200 is not always par here so the plan was to get off to a good start and take it from there."
Faf du Plessis: "Disappointed. I mean obviously they played really well through the middle there but I thought we fought back beautifully. But then that last ball, I fancied our chances with a run-out. I think just looking at that wicket, the batting from overs 7 to 14 was quite slow, the wicket, but then in the last five overs the ball was coming on nicely and that carried on in the second innings. I threw all our weapons we had at them. Unfortunately they took on one of our stronger bowlers right away, Harshal in his first two overs, but he came back well. It's a difficult place to bowl at the death, you have to be at your best. I was actually struggling for most of my innings. Was just happy to give the strike to Virat who was striking it really well in the first six overs. You get those innings where sometimes you have to scratch through and once I started hitting a few I got my flow."
What has happened here?! Harshal looks to run out the non-striker! But he misses and then has a throw at the stumps but it won't count! Because you can't throw after attempting to run the non-striker out. Harshal will bowl again!
Here's Ashish from the ground - It's gone absolutely crazy the moment Faf took the catch. He bobbled, but hung on. LSG surely the more nervous team at the moment. The roof has gone off at the M Chinnaswamy
One needed off one. One wicket left. Will LSG win? Or will we have a Super Over? Harshal Patel to Avesh Khan. BRING IT ON!
JD Unadkat c du Plessis b Patel 9 (19m 7b 1x4 0x6) SR: 128.57
Harshal also becomes the 16th Indian bowler to get 100 IPL wickets
Vivek Shukla: "Suppppperrrrr Overrrrrrrrrrr??" Ravi Bishnoi is the new batter, by the way
MA Wood b Patel 1 (6m 2b 0x4 0x6) SR: 50.00
Five needed off the last over with Unadkat on strike. RCB are two overs behind the over-rate so now they can only field four fielders outside the circle. Harshal to bowl the last over
The recent Harshal Patel example tells us why players need to train for these dismissals
Royal Challengers scored only 61 runs in the overs between 7 and 14; Super Giants amassed 117 in the same phase
"I spent the last couple of years frustrating myself, trying to win games for my team; tonight it came out well in the end," says Pooran
The RCB vs LSG game went down to the last ball, and amid all the excitement, a lot of interesting numbers emerged
Five needed from six with three wickets in hand. Easy? Not on the night. It was high drama as Super Giants scraped through against Royal Challengers