RCB vs LSG Match Highlights
Royal Challengers Bangalore 181/6
Lucknow Super Giants 163/8 (20 ov, T:182)
RCB won by 18 runs
Two of the most consistent teams of IPL 2022 played a remarkable 31st match in a close contest. Royal Challengers batting first gave a target of 182 for Lucknow Super Giants for the win. The team that had a similar start as RCB had no player who played like the red team captain. LSG missed having partnerships between players or even having a single-player stay at the crease for long. With Stoinis’ departure in 18th over, which was a controversial one, all LSG hopes seemed to go in vain. The Royals may have a weaker bowling department on paper but Harshal, Hazelwood together with all the other bowlers bowled brilliantly to win the match for RCB. Special credits to Faf du Plessis who scored a much-needed 96 (61) and led the team from the front, with an example.
The losing captain KL Rahul, had evaluated the match for us as he said “”I think we started really well after getting two wickets in the first over, to give away 50 in the Powerplay, we should have done better. 180 on that pitch was 15 or 20 runs extra that we gave away. The pitch was sticky. We got the early breakthroughs we were looking for but we couldn’t squeeze in the middle. We needed one big partnership – we saw what Faf did for RCB – I think we needed one batter in the top three or four to play a long innings and for other batters to play around with him but we couldn’t get that. We didn’t get partnerships and we couldn’t get a squeeze on with the ball. We have a really good team. I’m happy with how we’ve been playing. Yes, a couple games where we could have done better, against Rajasthan and here today we put them under pressure but we couldn’t sustain that for a bit longer. When we’re up, we have to keep the opposition down and restrict them to as low as possible and that’ll make batting easier chasing.”
The winning captain and the player of the Match, Faf du Plessis looked jubilant in the post match presentation ceremony as he said “Due to the nature of this ground, you do run a lot of 2s and towards the end, it can be tiring. I got a few 96, and a 97, so hopefully (a ton) is around the corner. We needed someone to stabilise the innings and then get going at the back end. Today, grateful that I could do it. Important that I am able to follow my blueprint of batting. If you bowled slow into the wicket to the big boundary, it never felt like you had enough power to clear that boundary. I was tired, but was still hoping that I could hit some at the end. Early in the innings, there was help for the bowlers and they did get us in trouble but we found a way. Our bowlers then stuck to the plans and when you do that on a ground like this, it’s tough for the batters. At the moment, lot of teams at the top, and many in the middle, and when that happens, it’s always a scramble (for playoff spots). But that’s out of our control. We need to just working on our strengths and we actually can get better in a few things. Need one guy to bat through consistently, but we haven’t had that frequently. DK has saved us quite a bit, hopefully today is a stepping stone in that direction. Before the last two games, it (death bowling) was a concern as we were getting hit in areas we shouldn’t have been. But in the last two games, we’ve got hit to where we’ve wanted to. Harshal has been exceptional, watch out for him, he’s going to be special for the rest of the season too.”
PLAYER OF THE MATCH- Faf du Plessis
