'CSK's loss is RCB's gain' - Twitter reacts as Faf du Plessis and Josh Hazlewood lead Bangalore to a comfortable win over LSG

RCB put in an excellent performance to go past LSG and climb to second position in the points table.

By Aditya Gajanan Kukalyekar verified

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3 Min Read

Faf du Plessis
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Faf du Plessis. (Photo Source: IPL/BCCI)

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have found their groove once again winning their second consecutive game in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). They have now won five matches in seven outings and with a win over Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), they have climbed to the second position. LSG, on the other hand, couldn’t chase down 182 after opting to bowl first and have slipped to the fourth position with their third loss in seven matches.

Earlier, Faf du Plessis played a fantastic knock to sail the troubled ship of his side to safe waters. He opened the innings for RCB and while he struggled to get going from the word go, the captain made sure he batted through. Du Plessis also paced his knock superbly churning out boundaries whenever needed. He got to his fifty off 40 deliveries and then unleashed his wrath on the LSG bowlers in the death overs. It was extremely unfortunate that he couldn’t get to his maiden IPL ton.

In an attempt to smash a maximum off the penultimate delivery of the final over, the RCB skipper got out but not before smacking 96 runs off 64 deliveries with 11 fours and two sixes. If not for his knock, RCB couldn’t have reached the competitive total of 181/6 in their 20 overs. Their innings had begun on a poor note with Anuj Rawat and Virat Kohli getting out in the very first over. Glenn Maxwell sparkled for some time, scoring 23 off 11 deliveries before he got out to some excellence on the field by Jason Holder off Krunal Pandya’s bowling.

RCB were struggling at 62/4 at one stage and this is when Shahbaz Ahmed stood strong with his skipper to stitch a crucial 70-run stand for the fifth wicket. Dinesh Karthik came out and played his part as well to score an unbeaten 13 off 8 balls to help RCB post a decent total along with Du Plessis.

RCB deliver a brilliant performance with the ball

LSG needed a decent start from their openers in the chase of 182. But Josh Hazlewood stepped up to the task to send back Quinton de Kock early and then dismissed Manish Pandey early as well to leave them struggling at 33/2 after five overs. Surprisingly, the Super Giants promoted Krunal Pandya to number four, the move that worked well. However, KL Rahul couldn’t get going at all on the day and eventually was strangled down the leg-side by Harshal Patel in the eighth over.

It was a brilliant review from RCB as Dinesh Karthik was not confident if the ball had touched the glove. Rahul could score 30 off 24 deliveries. Krunal, meanwhile, hit some telling blows to score some quick runs. He added 36 runs with Deepak Hooda before both the batters perished in the space seven balls to leave LSG at 108/5 in the 14th over.

Even then, LSG were in with the chance as two specialist batters, Marcus Stoinis and Ayush Badoni, were in the middle with Jason Holder yet to come. However, RCB bowled exceptionally well in the death overs, not giving much of a chance to the batters to hit boundaries. Hazlewood showed off his skills yet again ending with the figures of 4/25 in his four-over spell. In the end, LSG could only reach 163 runs in their 20 overs, losing the game by 18 runs.

Here’s how Twitter reacted:

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