Live Report: LSG vs RCB, Lucknow

Hazlewood gets Naveen caught behind leaving LSG requiring 24 from eight balls. Rahul finally walks in but it's clear he cannot run. He fails to find a boundary in the rest of the over, which also featured a free hit.

With 23 needed from the last over, Mishra scoops Harshal for four, bringing it down to 19 off three. Two balls later Mishra perishes. Rahul 0* off 3.

The win means RCB are now fifth on the points table with ten points from nine games. Only net run rate separates them from the second-placed Rajasthan Royals. LSG slip to third.

That's all from our side for this game. See you soon.

With 31 needed from 12, and still Mishra and Naveen in the middle, you would think the game is already over for LSG. Has Rahul left it too late? Should LSG retire out Mishra here?

Bishnoi has been run-out while going for a risky second run. And Rahul is still in the dugout. Think he will come out as No. 11 and look to hit just boundaries.

Naveen can throw his bat around but the required too has become steep now: 48 needed from four overs.

It looked like LSG have decided to counter-attack their way out of it. Gowtham hits Karn for a six and four and then follows it with another six off Hasaranga. That reduced the equation to 64 needed from the last ten overs.

Stoinis too tried to go big against Karn in the 11th only to slice it to long-off.

While I was typing this, Gowtham has been run-out and he has only his sloppy running to blame. Too casual while coming back for the second.

LSG 68 for 7 in the 12th. Mishra and Bishnoi are the two batters in the middle, and looks like Rahul has started padding up.

Karn Sharma came into this game in place of Vijaykumar Vyshak and has struck in his first over. And what a big wicket it is. Pooran tried to go aerial but couldn't middle it. It went miles in the air but Mahipal Lomror at deep square leg called for it early and settled under it. He let out a roar as did Kohli, the latter not for the first time in this innings.

K Gowtham joins Stoinis in the middle. Rahul is still in the hut. Not sure how likely he is to come out.

Wanindu Hasaranga takes just one ball to get among the wickets. He draws Hooda out of the crease with a googly, beats him on the inside edge, and gets him stumped. Pooran and Stoinis are in the middle. They have bailed out LSG on more than one occasion this time, but this is a different surface.

Ayush Badoni looks to go over extra cover but fails to get the required elevation. Kohli leaps at extra cover and plucks it with both hands. Stoinis opens his account with a straight six. So LSG are still looking to make the most of the field restrictions.

After two overs, LSG were 2 for 1 but Krunal hits Siraj for three successive fours in the third to move the needle.

Krunal knows he can kill the chase in the powerplay, so he tries to take on Glenn Maxwell as well. He comes out of his crease but ends up chipping the ball to Kohli at long-off.

RCB have an early breakthrough. The second ball of the chase and Mayers goes for the pull, only to miscue it to long-on.

Yash Thakur has been subbed out. Didn't it make more sense to sub out Rahul? Do they expect him to come out to bat at some time?

Rahul was seen walking gingerly near the dugout with a bat in hand. Might have had a hit in the nets.

RCB won the toss and opted to bat despite a forecast of rain. Du Plessis and Kohli did set the platform by adding 62 in nine overs but the innings never really came out of the first gear. LSG need 127 to win but they are likely to be without KL Rahul. Du Plessis reckons they have got some really good spinners in their line-up today to make use of the pitch. Let's see how it unfolds.

Not to be confused with the pre-ball run-out. Hasaranga mistimes one back towards Yash Thakur who fields it in his follow-through, turns around and nails the direct hit. Karthik had set off for a single. He tried to turn around but slipped and fell. But even if he hadn't slipped, he would have been out by a fair distance.

Dinesh Karthik resumes by hitting the first ball after the break over midwicket for four. In the next over, the 17th of the innings, he pulled a half-tracker from Mishra for a six. Du Plessis also tried to take Mishra on but ended up miscuing his attempt. Krunal ran to his right from point and completed the tumbling catch near extra cover.

The rain has gone away and we are all set to resume. In all, the play was halted for 25 minutes. Will we see the ball coming onto the bat better now?

The drizzle has got heavier, and the players are off the field. The centre square and the run-up areas have been covered.

The struggle is real, as Suyash Prabhudessai finds out. He tries to hit Amit Mishra through the off side off the back foot but manages to hit it uppishly towards long-off. K Gowtham comes in from the boundary and dives forward full length to catch it with both hands.

Dinesh Karthik walks in at No. 6, with a bit of drizzle around as well.

Rawat managed only 9 off ten balls and holed out to deep midwicket off K Gowtham. That brought Glenn Maxwell, arguably RCB's best batter against spin, in the middle. But he lasted just five balls. Trying to reverse-sweep a Bishnoi legbreak, he got hit on the body and the umpire raised his finger. Maxwell reviewed the decision, expecting the ball to go over the stumps. The ball-tracking, however, showed it would have just clipped the bails. Maxwell is fuming after seeing the replay on the big screen.

RCB 82 for 3 after 13; du Plessis 35* off 31

Kohli tries to break the shackles. He jumps out of his crease against Ravi Bishnoi but is nowhere near the pitch of the ball. Moreover, it's a googly that beats him on the inside edge. An easy stumping for Pooran. Kohli made 31 off 30.

Anuj Rawat walks in at No. 3.

Telly just showed that Jaydev Unadkat got injured while bowling in the LSG nets yesterday. His foot got stuck in one of the ropes used to harness the nets, and as a result, he landed awkwardly in his follow-through and fell on his left elbow.

Meanwhile, Bishnoi too gives away just five from his over. RCB 42 for no loss after six.

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After three quiet overs, du Plessis hits Naveen for a straight six. Two balls later, Kohli steers a slower one behind point. In all, RCB picked up 12 from that over but Krunal followed it up with another tight over, conceding just five singles.

Bishnoi to bowl the final over of the powerplay.

KL Rahul has injured himself. It was the last ball of the second over, and du Plessis hit it through covers. Rahul put in the chase, but he had to abort it and went down clutching his right thigh. He was wincing in pain and it looked like he would have to be stretchered off. In the end, he walks off with some assistance.

Krunal Pandya is LSG's designated vice-captain and, I guess, will lead them now. Krunal also opened the bowling for them. And his very first ball showed what to expect tonight. It landed on a good length around off and came off much slower off the surface. Virat Kohli ended up pushing at it, got a thick outside edge past first slip, and it ran away for four, beating the chasing fielder.

S Rajesh has got some numbers: In IPL 2023, RCB's Nos. 5-8 average 12.55, the second-lowest for any team in any season. Only Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2019 did slightly worse (12.53). And this, when the overall tournament average for Nos. 5-8 is the highest of any season (24.35).

This could be a reason why RCB signed Kedar Jadhav, an Indian middle-order batter who is arguably well past his prime, for David Willey, an overseas left-arm seam-bowling allrounder.

RCB have won the toss and opted to bat. Du Plessis expects the pitch to help spinners more in the second innings. Josh Hazlewood plays his first game of the season. Anuj Rawat comes in for Shahbaz Ahmed. Karn Sharma is also back. Expect Harshal Patel to be their Impact Player.

"Having played here, we know this pitch is going to be consistent," says KL Rahul. "Consistently good or consistently... Let's say it's going to be hard work for both teams. Avesh Khan misses out and K Gowtham comes in because of the conditions. Just one change in the XII."

Lucknow Super Giants: 1 KL Rahul (capt), 2 Kyle Mayers, 3 Marcus Stoinis, 4 Deepak Hooda, 5 Nicholas Pooran (wk), 6 Krunal Pandya, 7 K Gowtham, 8 Ravi Bishnoi, 9 Naveen-ul-Haq, 10 Amit Mishra, 11 Yash Thakur
Substitutes: Ayush Badoni, Daniel Sams, Avesh Khan, Quinton de Kock, Prerak Mankad

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Faf du Plessis (capt), 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Mahipal Lomror, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Anuj Rawat, 6 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 7 Suyash Prabhudessai, 8 Wanindu Hasaranga, 9 Karn Sharma, 10 Josh Hazlewood, 11 Mohammed Siraj
Substitutes: Harshal Patel, Sonu Yadav, Michael Bracewell, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Shahbaz Ahmed

RCB have brought in Kedar Jadhav for the injured David Willey. Willey was struck on the toe while batting against Kolkata Knight Riders on Wednesday and has since flown back to the UK. His toe was fractured and he had also suffered an adductor strain.

Harshal Patel has been managing his finger injury and was getting it strapped again a few minutes ago.

Faf du Plessis seems to have recovered from the rib injury that reduced him to just a batter. He is all set for the toss.

For LSG, Marcus Stoinis has been warming up as well with a heavily strapped left index finger. He had hurt himself while making a stop off his own bowling in the previous game.

... these two sides met? Harshal Patel missed a pre-ball run-out, and Avesh Khan sneaked to give LSG a one-wicket win on the last ball.

That was a high-scoring game at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium with LSG chasing down 212. This time, we could have the opposite of that as tonight's match will be played on a black-soil surface, which usually helps spinners.

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