Nic of time

Bengaluru, April 10

Nicholas Pooran smashed a match-winning 19-ball 62 while Marcus Stoinis made 65 as Lucknow Super Giants prevailed over Royal Challengers Bangalore by one wicket in a last-ball thriller in the Indian Premier League here today. Chasing 213, LSG rode on the brilliance of Pooran and Stoinis to eke out a memorable win. Pooran recorded the season’s fastest fifty, reaching the landmark in only 15 balls.

Earlier, captain Faf Du Plessis, Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell smashed blistering half-centuries as RCB posted an imposing 212/2 after being sent in to bat.

While du Plessis made an unbeaten 79 off 46 balls, Kohli took the centre stage initially with his 44-ball 61 as the duo shared 96 runs for the opening wicket.

LSG had a horrible start and lost Kyle Mayers to Mohammed Siraj off the third delivery of the opening over. RCB tasted their second success in the fourth over when Deepak Hooda got a faint edge to Dinesh Karthik behind the stumps off the bowling of Wayne Parnell.

To make matters worse for LSG, Parnell struck again when Krunal Pandya edged one to Karthik as the visitors slumped to 23/3 in four overs.

Thereafter, Stoinis showed his batting prowess and took Harshal Patel and Karn Sharma to the cleaners to keep LSG in the hunt. Stoinis continued his onslaught and slammed Shahbaz Ahmed for two maximums to take LSG to 91/3 after the halfway stage while bringing up his fifty in 26 balls. Stoinis then hammered Sharma over the extra cover boundary, but the bowler had the last laugh as the Australian miscued a shot to be caught at deep point. Skipper KL Rahul’s lean patch continued as he struggled to 18 off 20 balls.

Brief scores: Royal Challengers Bangalore: 212/2 in 20 overs (du Plessis 79*, Kohli 61, Maxwell 59); Lucknow Super Giants: 213/9 in 20 overs (Stoinis 65, Pooran 62).