Lucknow:The Royal Challengers Bengaluru were beaten by nine runs by the Lucknow Super Giants in their 2026 encounter at the Ekana Stadium. The match was interrupted by rain on several occasions and saw Australia international Mitchell Marsh play a blinder of a knock scoring 111 runs off 56 balls. His new opening partner Arshin Kulkarni was not delivering on the potential but Marsh was unfazed and put on a one-man show before Nicholas Pooran joined him in the middle.
The West Indies international scored 38 from 23 balls. Skipper Rishabh Pant, also batting at No. 4, gave a glimpse of his class with a sensational 32 not out off just 10 balls. He wreaked havoc in the middle and helped Lucknow finish well with the bat. The keeper-batter had a really tough season with the bat and was under a lot of security. He was under the scanner for his place in the playing XI to such an extent.
But the LSG captain showed his mettle against RCB and took his team to 209 runs in 19 overs. Meanwhile, the Bengaluru bowlers had a rough time tonight and that is slightly concerning as both the batting and bowling units failed to perform in the previous game against Gujarat Titans as well.
“Second innings, what happened?Bengaluru's batting unit has dominated proceedings this season and hence they came in the second innings as favourites. But two quick wickets of Jacob Bethell and changed the complexion of the game. The England international could not carry on from his IPL 2026 start, walking back for four runs. However, Kohli was dismissed by pacer Prince Yadav, who bowled a peach to hit the top of the off-stump.
After they left, Devdutt Padikkal, along with captain Rajat Patidar, took over the business and built a valuable partnership of 95 runs. That gave RCB some momentum but once Padikkal departed for 34 runs, wickets fell like a house of cards. Jitesh Sharma again failed to put up a fight as he scored just a run. Patidar too got out soon after scoring 61 runs.
The pressure was then on Tim David and . Australia international scored a magnificent 40 runs off 17 balls but could not win the game for his team. The pressure then fell on Krunal Pandya and Romario Shepherd who batted well and put the pressure back on Lucknow but were not able to pull it off. All the credit goes to Lucknow, Prince Yadav picked up three wickets tonight.
Lucknow thus registered their third win of the season and with that stay alive in the playoffs race. Bengaluru, on the other hand, now have back to back defeats to their name. Interestingly, Punjab too lost consecutive games after a stunning start, just like RCB.
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