In an exciting match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, the Lucknow Super Giants pulled off a last-over victory against the Rajasthan Royals in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023.
Chasing a target of 192 runs, Lucknow got off to a solid start with openers Jason Roy and Shubman Gill adding 77 runs for the first wicket in just 7.3 overs. Roy, who was dropped early in his innings, went on to score a blistering 62 off just 32 balls before getting caught in the deep off the bowling of Chris Morris.
Gill and Nitish Rana kept the momentum going with a quickfire partnership of 47 runs off just 23 balls, but both of them fell in quick succession to bring Rajasthan back into the game. With the required run rate climbing, captain Kieron Pollard and all-rounder Andre Russell played some big shots to keep Lucknow in the hunt.
Pollard, who was dropped twice, played a captain’s knock, scoring 49 runs off just 22 balls before getting out in the 19th over. With 10 runs needed off the final over, Russell hit the first ball for a boundary before getting caught on the second ball.
Lucknow needed 6 runs off 4 balls with 3 wickets in hand, and it was left to the lower-order batsmen to finish the job. Mohit Sharma hit a boundary off the third ball to bring the equation down to 2 runs off 3 balls, and then ran a quick single off the fourth ball to level the scores.
On the fifth ball of the over, Shreyas Gopal bowled a wide delivery which went to the boundary, and Lucknow clinched a thrilling victory with one ball to spare.
For Rajasthan, Morris and Gopal took two wickets each, while Mustafizur Rahman and Riyan Parag took one wicket each.
Lucknow’s victory takes them to the top of the IPL 2023 points table with four wins from five matches, while Rajasthan is in the sixth position with two wins from five matches.
