On Monday, Royal Challengers Bangalore’s bowlers defeated Lucknow Super Giants by 18 runs in a low-scoring Indian Premier League encounter.
On a difficult batting wicket, Bangalore’s bowlers bowled out Lucknow for 108 after captain Faf du Plessis scored 44.
Bangalore pace spearhead Mohammed Siraj dismissed Kyle Mayers for a duck in the second delivery of the chase and Lucknow fell to 38-5 with Virat Kohli getting two brilliant catches.
Lucknow’s batsmen appeared rushed as Nicholas Pooran, on nine, and Marcus Stoinis, on 13, were run out by Karn Sharma’s leg-spin.Lucknow suffered an early setback as captain KL Rahul seemed to damage his thigh during fielding, hobbling out and coming into bat last.
In his debut IPL outing, Josh Hazlewood bowled three overs for 2-15.
Bangalore, still without an IPL crown, rose to fifth in the 10-team league with five victories in nine matches. Lucknow fell.
Du Plessis, who returned to captain after playing as a batsman in the previous few matches led by Kohli, set up victory for Bangalore with a knock that shone out in an otherwise poor performance by the star-studded line-up.
Despite a shaky start, Du Plessis and Kohli put on 62 runs for the first wicket, but none of the other batsmen survived Lucknow bowlers.
Naveen-ul-Haq bagged 3-30 while spinners Ravi Bishnoi and Amit Mishra each captured two wickets. Bishnoi’s leg-spin bowled Kohli, stumped for 31, and Glenn Maxwell, lbw for four, while Mishra and Naveen joined forces after a short rain break.
After surpassing Rajasthan Royals’ Yashasvi Jaiswal (428), Du Plessis tried to maintain the innings but was defeated by Mishra.