Nicholas Pooran smashed the fastest fifty of the IPL season in 15 balls as Lucknow Super Giants pulled off a stunning chase of 213 to edge out Royal Challengers Bangalore in a last-ball thriller on Monday.
West Indies’ Pooran smashed 62 off 19 balls before he departed but Lucknow crept over the line to win by one wicket in a dramatic final over in Bengaluru.
Lucknow needed five off the last six balls after Ayush Badoni was out hit-wicket for 30 in the penultimate over, hitting his stumps while hammering what would have been a six.
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Mark Wood and Jaydev Unadkat were dismissed in the final over and Ravi Bishnoi was nearly ‘mankaded’ from the last ball.
Harsha Patel attempted to remove the bails but somehow missed the stumps, only to turn around and throw down the stumps as Bishnoi dived back. However, the umpires bizarrely opted not to review the run-out, and instead called it a dead ball.
A recent clarification of the rules surrounding Mankads says that any attempt to run out the nonstriker must come before “the moment the bowler’s arm reaches the highest point of his/her normal bowling action in the delivery swing”.
But Patel did not enter any delivery swing, meaning a dead ball should not have called. And it is explicitly stated in the laws that the ball remains live if the bowler attempts a run-out.
Clause 20.4.2 says that the ball is dead if: “the ball does not leave the bowler’s hand for any reason other than an attempt to run out the nonstriker”.
With the scores level and a super over beckoning, number 11 Avesh Khan scampered a bye and threw his helmet in celebration – something he was later reprimanded for.
Australia’s Marcus Stoinis had earlier clobbered a 30-ball 65, but it was Pooran’s blitz including seven sixes that blew away RCB.
Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell notched up 15 sixes between them in Bangalore’s 212-2, with 27 hit in the match in total.
Bangalore struck with three early wickets before Stoinis dominated a fourth-wicket stand of 76 with skipper KL Rahul.
Impact player Karn Sharma broke the partnership as he sent back Stoinis but Bangalore had a new nemesis in Pooran.
The efforts of Pooran and Stoinis eclipsed the power-hitting from Kohli (61), Du Plessis (79 not out) and Maxwell (59 off 29) after Bangalore were put in to bat first.
Kohli set the tone for Bangalore’s big total with his second fifty of the season in a 96-run opening stand with Du Plessis.
Maxwell kept up the charge after Kohli’s departure with six sixes and three fours and Du Plessis delivered a flurry of sixes, including a hit of 115 metres, as he also registered his second half-century of the campaign.
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