Lucknow Super Giants (209/3 in 19 overs) defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore (203/6 in 19 overs) by 9 runs via DLS method at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium. LSG vs RCB: highlighted | Achievement:
For several months now, Ekana Stadium has slowly started becoming the place where Lucknow Supergiants keep finding new ways to lose.
The runs never came consistently, the bowling lost control at crucial moments and the home crowd left disappointed. The streak of eight consecutive defeats continues at home. IPL 2025 had turned Lucknow’s own land into the exact opposite of an advantage.
And by the time we came up against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Thursday night, things weren’t looking any better.
RCB came into IPL 2026 as one of the form teams. LSG came in with fading playoff hopes, mounting pressure, and a season that was fast coming to an end. On paper, it looked like Bengaluru would be in control.
Instead, Mitchell Marsh and Prince Yadav completely overturned the mood of the season on a chaotic night at Ekana.
Marsh was the first to create the atmosphere by treating the powerplay like a net session. The Australian opener scored 111 runs in 56 balls and never gave RCB a chance to breathe. Rain interruptions continued, reducing the game to 19 overs a side, but Marsh continued to attack as if the break had unsettled him further.
Josh Hazlewood missed the straight boundary twice already. Rasikh Dar was introduced into the attack in the fifth over and was greeted with more punishment. Marsh completed his fastest IPL fifty in just 20 balls and by then, Ekana had found his voice again.
The biggest phase of the game came there.
LSG ended the powerplay on 68 runs without losing any wicket. Chasing 213, RCB faltered at 35/2.
That gap never completely disappeared from the game.
With Arshin Kulkarni, Marsh added 95 for the opening wicket, before Nicholas Pooran kept the pressure on with 38. Then came a small reminder of the chaos of old Rishabh Pant.
Pant’s unbeaten inning of 32 runs in 10 balls had everything. A reverse swept six. A four where the bat left his hand after contact. A few minutes of absolute madness pushed LSG past 200 and forced RCB to chase the game right from the start.
But still, against a batting lineup full of chasing experts, no one in Lucknow was relaxing yet.
Not until Prince Yadav completed the night of his IPL career.
Prince Yadav converted pressure into dominance
The Prince’s evening started badly indeed.
A misfield leaked four runs and summed up the nervous energy surrounding LSG this season. But within a matter of minutes, the young fast bowler completely changed the game and perhaps also his own IPL story.
First up came a sharp catch after Mohammed Shami had dismissed Jacob Bethel cheaply once again. Then that ball came which shook the stadium.
Virat Kohli was clean bowled on zero in two balls.
The reaction said it all. Kohli has saved RCB from such situations many times, so that no one can feel comfortable in his presence. But Prince attacked the stumps, hit them hard and suddenly the chase master had no answer.
And the Prince’s work was not done.
When Rajat Patidar played a brilliant inning of 61 runs in 31 balls and Devdutt Padikkal quietly carried the innings, RCB looked set for another comeback.
Just then Prince returned and removed Padikkal.
Three wickets. Figures of 3/33. But more importantly, the wickets kept coming when LSG were beginning to panic again.
LSG survives one last RCB scare
Despite all this, RCB almost won the game.
After the fall of Padikkal’s wicket, the decision to send Jitesh Sharma before Tim David did not work as the wicketkeeper could score only one run. But as soon as David arrived, the mood immediately changed.
His innings of 40 off 17 balls made an impossible start suddenly seem very possible.
Every boundary brought new tension into the LSG dugout, before Shahbaz Ahmed eventually dismissed him.
Still, the real drama was waiting for the last over.
RCB needed 20 runs. Romario Shepherd and Krunal Pandya were at the crease. And inside the LSG crowd, Pant, Marsh, Abdul Samad and Digvesh Rathi were all trying to decide who would bowl the final over.
Going with Digvesh seemed risky. He had already given away 40 runs in three overs and Romario and Krunal were finding it dangerous to bowl spin.
But still Pant trusted him.
And for once, RCB’s finishers ran out of answers.
Romario could never connect properly in the final over as LSG cruised to a nine-run DLS win that finally ended the long domestic nightmare.
More importantly, it kept their playoff hopes alive.
barely. But alive.
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published by:
Debodinna Chakraborty
Published on:
May 8, 2026 00:47 IST
