Nicholas Pooran fireworks set up final ball victory for Lucknow Super Giants over RCB

Pooran blasted a 15-ball half-century to help his side successfully chase 213

Bengaluru: Royal Challengers Bangalore 212-2, Lucknow Super Giants 213-9 - Lucknow Super Giants won by one wicket

Nicholas Pooran blasted a 15-ball half-century to help Lucknow Super Giants complete a thrilling one-wicket victory against Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Chasing 213, Lucknow were in trouble early on, losing Kyle Mayers, Deepak Hooda and Krunal Pandya inside the opening four overs. Mohammed Siraj struck with the third delivery of the match to account for Mayers while Hooda and Pandya fell to Wayne Parnell in the fourth.

Marcus Stoinis blasted 65 runs off 30 balls to inject some energy into the chase but when he was removed four balls after the halfway mark to reduce Lucknow to 99 for 4, it looked as though RCB had wrapped up the two points.

However, they hadn't banked on Pooran. The West Indies international dispatched the second ball he faced for six and took apart the bowling of Karn Sharma, Harshal Patel, and Parnell en route to his blistering half-century – only KL Rahul and Pat Cummins (both 14 balls) have scored faster fifties in the IPL.

^{Lucknow Super Giants celebrate their victory [Manjunath Kiran/AFP via Getty Images]}

^{Faf du Plessis top-scored for RCB [Manjunath Kiran/AFP via Getty Images]}

From a position of 114 runs required from 56 balls, he reduced the equation to 28 off the final four overs before a flurry of wickets set up a tense final-ball showdown.

Siraj picked up the big wicket of Pooran at the end of the 16th over, Ayush Badoni was dismissed hit wicket as he scooped Parnell for six, and Patel accounted for both Wood and Jaydev Unadkat in the final over when tasked with defending five runs off six balls.

With one run required off the final ball, Patel attempted to run Ravi Bishnoi out at the non-striker's end but missed the stumps. He re-bowled the delivery which was fumbled by keeper Dinesh Karthik, allowing Avesh Khan to sneak through for the match-winning run

Earlier, Virat Kohli scored his second half-century of the 2023 IPL, getting RCB's innings off to a bright start with a knock of 61 off 44 balls as part of a 96-run opening stand with captain Faf du Plessis.

He was removed by Amit Mishra in the 12th over, but his departure did nothing to halt the flow of runs, with du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell both scoring half-centuries of their own to help RCB beyond the 200-mark.

Du Plessis finished unbeaten on 79 off 46 balls while Maxwell scored 59 runs off 29 deliveries before being bowled by Wood with the penultimate delivery of the innings.

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