Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) clashed against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the 43rd match of the IPL 2023 which was played at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow on May 1.

RCB captain Faf du Plessis won the toss and chose to bat first. Apart from him returning to first XI, RCB also included Karn Sharma in its XI keeping the Lucknow pitch in mind, while Josh Hazlewood came in for injured David Willey. 

LSG, on the other hand, dropped Avesh Khan and brought in K Gowtham. 

RCB posted 126/9 with Faf top-scoring with 44 and Virat Kohli making 31. After their 62-run opening partnership, LSG spinners showcased their prowess and tied the RCB batting down. Naveen ul Haq, picked three wickets while Ravi Bishnoi and Amit Mishra took two wickets apiece.

In response, the LSG batters found batting tough on the sluggish Lucknow pitch as Kyle Mayers got out on the second ball of the first over to Mohammed Siraj and Ayush Badoni made 4 runs before becoming the victim of Josh Hazlewood. 

Krunal Pandya did hit 3 fours in his 14, but got out to Glenn Maxwell. After him, only Marcus Stoinis (13), K Gowtham (23) and Amit Mishra (19) made some contributions. One big cause for their misery was that LSG played out 66 dot balls in their innings. 

One of the big blows for LSG was that KL Rahul had gotten injured while fielding in RCB innings and only came out to bat at no.11 and as he was unable to run due to a thigh muscle pull, couldn’t do much as LSG were bowled out for 108 in 19.5 overs.

RCB defended 126 runs and the match by 18 runs.  

With this win, RCB moved to 5th spot in IPL 2023 points table with 10 points from 9 games, while LSG remain at third spot with 10 points from 9 games as well. 

During the high intensity encounter, an ardent fan of Virat Kohli managed to breach security and entered the playing area to meet him and touch his feet. Kohli graciously met the fan and gave him a warm hug as well.

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