Royal Challengers Bangalore slump to an unfortunate defeat amidst high drama against the Lucknow Super Giants

A heartbreak couldn’t have been any worse for the Royal Challengers Bangalore as they were an inch away from what could have been a factory reset to the entire complexion of the game, but it all changed as RCB missed chances on the last ball to hand LSG a thrilling win at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday evening. 

In a thrilling tie that went down to that final ball, it was the last ball of the game where the Lucknow Super Giants stole away a bye to secure their maiden win against the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Winning the toss, KL Rahul opted to field first and Virat Kohli was in effusive touch from the word go, clobbering the bowlers with consummate ease. He would eventually knit together a 96-run stand for the opening wicket with Faf du Plessis, as he himself racked up 61 from just 44 balls.

Following Kohli’s departure, Glenn Maxwell and du Plessis continued the onslaught, as they paced their innings perfectly. The RCB captain managed to smash 79 from just 46 balls while Glenn Maxwell hammered 59 from 29 balls. Riding high on the batting heroics of the top three, RCB piled up 212 on the scorecard.

Things, however, went south for the Challengers despite once again reeling the Giants back within touching distance of strong enforcement of themselves. Wayne Parnell got an early brace followed by Mohammed Siraj’s middle-over heroics. The duo of Siraj and Parnell shared six wickets between them.

Despite a redoubtable show from the Royal Challengers, it was a magical turnaround by Nicholas Pooran and Marcus Stoinis who were bang on with their approach of hard-hitting, clobbering a 19-ball-62 and a 30-ball-65 respectively. Ayush Badoni who came on as an impact player also managed to add 30 crucial runs before getting hit wicket in the penultimate over.

The actual drama unfurled in that final over where RCB managed to turn things around with a couple of wickets despite just four runs required off it. However, in that last ball where just a solitary run was required by the Giants, Harshal Patel tried a run out at the non-striker’s end to no avail, before Dinesh Karthik fumbled while attempting to collect a ball missed by Avesh Khan and missed a golden chance of a run out to take the game into a Super Over. With so much drama in the centre, eventually, RCB fans had to leave Chinnaswamy heartbroken as they were defeated in that final ball of the contest.