The M.Chinnaswamy Stadium witness another high-scoring encounter, and once again, to the misery of the home fans, it was the home team, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), whose bowlers failed to defend a big total as blazing half-centuries from Nicholas Pooran and Marcus Stoinis and a cameo from Ayush Badoni helped Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) gun down the target of 213 with 1 wicket in hand and one ball to spare.
RCB had piled up 212 courtesy of half-centuries from their top 3: Virat Kohli scored 61 (44), Faf du Plessis scored 79*(46) and Glenn Maxwell scored 59 (29).
The LSG innings was full of twists and turns. LSG had a poor start: they lost Kyle Mayers in the first over, and Deepak Hooda and Krunal Pandya in the 4th over. After that, Marcus Stoinis, who hadn’t played an innings of note in the first 3 matches, brought out his best, smashing 65 runs off 30 balls, with the help of 6 fours and 5 sixes.
LSG suffered another blip as Stoinis and KL Rahul, who had a horrible night with the bat scoring only 18 runs off 20 balls, both got out in succession. LSG stumbled to 105/5 in 11.1 over before Nicholas Pooran took off. And the way he did left the Chinnaswamy stunned.
Pooran single-handedly turned the momentum of the chase with his sensational knock of 62 runs off just 19 balls, recording the fastest fifty of IPL 2023 so far, off merely 15 balls.
The final twist was still left. With 28 needed in 24 balls, it felt that Pooran and Badoni will see LSG home. However, LSG resumed to lose wickets. First Pooran, then Badoni (30 off 24). Unadkat hit a crucial boundary to bring the required rate close to 6 per over before getting out.
With 5 needed off the last over, Harshal Patel dragged it to the last ball with wickets of Wood and Unadkat and brought it down to one run off one ball. With LSG 9 wicket down, however, Patel missed an opportunity to mankad Bishnoi who had taken an early stride and gone out of the bowling crease. Then, Patel beat Avesh with the last ball, but Dinesh Karthik couldn’t collect it properly and Avesh and Bishnoi stole a bye, thus concluding a highly topsy-turvy chase.
RCB bowlers were trolled heavily for failing to defend 212.
Here are some of the funniest memes on RCB’s bowlers:
Nicholas Pooran after hitting fastest 50 in IPL 2023 be like 🔥
Meanwhile Vintage RCB 😅#RCBvLSG #Haarcb #IPL2023 pic.twitter.com/vhiPzDUFal
— Ashutosh Srivastava 🇮🇳 (@sri_ashutosh08) April 10, 2023
https://twitter.com/1no_aalsi_/status/1645484291114283010?s=20
Another Dhoni fanboy owning RCB pic.twitter.com/6rB8F2wzvn
— ‘ (@Ashwin_tweetz) April 10, 2023
Face of RCB fan every year since IPL started in 2008 pic.twitter.com/vNT85DBs6Y
— chacha monk (@oldschoolmonk) April 10, 2023
RCB fans in the last 15 years pic.twitter.com/6D9oTAol8G
— Sunil the Cricketer (@1sInto2s) April 10, 2023
RCB batters can try as much they want but can never match their bowlers level of entertainment.
— Silly Point (@FarziCricketer) April 10, 2023
Chinnaswamy crowd should be saluted man they are bareing this guys and still chanting RCB RCB …. You guys have shame.
— Sai (@akakrcb6) April 10, 2023
https://twitter.com/RemoMowa/status/1645477803813666817?s=20
Harshal Patel…another Run Machine of RCB pic.twitter.com/iThmj4iXWZ
— Kriitii 🌌 (@mistakrii) April 10, 2023
RCB Fans were celebrating after the fall of Stoinis wicket
Nicholas Pooran : pic.twitter.com/ydTt8g5nUG— ಭಲೇ ಬಸವ (@Basavachethanah) April 10, 2023
https://twitter.com/_Cricpedia/status/1645484979881922560?s=20
Me giving myself some treat for being a RCB fan pic.twitter.com/UqjrVEwwSX
— Robin (@Bisleri_maymer) April 10, 2023
If a batter isn't in form, rcb bowlers will bring him in form doing whatever it takes.
— arfan (@Im__Arfan) April 10, 2023
#RCBvLSG
Nicholas pooran today against vintage RCB bowlers pic.twitter.com/g36S6hMka3— 👌⭐ 👑 (@superking1816) April 10, 2023