IPL: Pooran smashes third-fastest IPL half-century as Lucknow stun RCB in thriller
Lucknow Super Giants 213 for 9 (Stoinis 65, Pooran 62, Siraj 3-22) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 212 for 2 (du Plessis 79*, Kohli 61, Maxwell 59, Mishra 1-18) by one wicket
Nicholas Pooran smashed the joint-third fastest 50 in Indian Premier League history to help the Lucknow Super Giants to a stunning one-wicket victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore on Monday.
Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell all made half-centuries at the Mangalam Chinnaswamy Stadium as Bangalore set Lucknow a seemingly daunting target of 213, but Pooran’s incredible 62 off 19 deliveries led the Super Giants to an improbable win.
Lucknow won the toss and put RCB in to bat first, before openers Kohli (61 from 44) and Du Plessis put up 96 for no loss until the former was dismissed with the third ball of the 11th over.
Maxwell came in for Kohli, and he (59 off 29) and Du Plessis (79 not out) went on to plunder 115 from just 50 balls before Mark Wood (1-32) took the Australian batsman’s leg stump out of the ground with the penultimate ball of the innings, as Royal Challengers finished with a formidable 212-2.
The Super Giants’ chase took a huge blow within three balls as in-form danger man Kyle Mayers was dismissed by Mohammed Siraj without a run on the board, and Wayne Parnell (3-41) took the wickets of both Deepak Hooda and Krunal Pandya in the fourth over to leave Lucknow’s hopes seemingly hanging by a thread.
However, Marcus Stoinis gave them a chance with his 65 off 30 and Pooran made the fastest half-century in this season’s IPL before he was finally caught by Shahbaz Ahmed off Siraj’s (3-22) bowling.
Lucknow would go on to win in remarkable fashion, needing one off the final delivery of the innings when Harshal Patel missed the stumps while trying to mankad the non-striker.
Harshal would eventually bowl the last ball, and though his delivery beat Avesh Khan, wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik fumbled as the Super Giants batsmen completed the run to secure an extraordinary victory.
Bangalore’s big three all fire in defeat
The Royal Challengers’ top three batsmen all played excellent knocks with Kohli, Du Plessis and Maxwell accounting for all but one of their team’s runs, excluding extras.
It was only the fifth time in IPL history that each of a team’s top three all made half-centuries and the first time Bangalore had achieved that feat. However, their efforts were still not enough to get their team over the line.
Pooran changes the game
The Super Giants’ hopes looked slim after Stoinis and KL Rahul fell within three balls of each other, but Pooran’s introduction swung the match back in their favour.
He went at a strike rate of 326.31, smashing four fours and seven maximums to set up his teammates to go on and win the game. (SportsMax)
