Lucknow: Rain stopped play in Match No. 43 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Lucknow Super Giants at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium on Monday.
When rain caused play to stop, with the centre square covered immediately, Bangalore had reached 93/4 in 15.2 overs on a black soil pitch, with captain Faf du Plessis and Dinesh Karthik unbeaten on 40 and 1 respectively.
On the first ball of the innings, Krunal Pandya got some turn and bounce, showing signs of what would come in the game. Virat Kohli pushed at it and got a thick outside edge past the first slip, for four.
Lucknow were dealt a huge blow as captain K.L. Rahul walked off the field after injuring his right leg while trying to stop a boundary on the last ball of the second over.
After three overs of no boundaries, du Plessis broke the shackles by lofting Naveen-ul-Haq over long-off for six, followed by Kohli steering him between backward point and third man for four.
Kohli then broke a 3.3-over period of no boundaries by driving through cover on an overpitched delivery by Yash Thakur. But in the ninth over, Kohli fell as he was nowhere near the pitch of the ball while coming down the pitch to counter a googly from Ravi Bishnoi and was stumped easily.
From there on, Bangalore endured a slide as Anuj Rawat pulled straight to deep mid-wicket off K. Gowtham, Glenn Maxwell missed a reverse sweep off Bishnoi and trapped plumb lbw, followed by Suyash Prabhudessai miscuing to long-off against Amit Mishra. Drizzle then got heavier and forced players, and umpires to go off the field.
Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bangalore 93/4 in 15.2 overs (Faf du Plessis 40 not out, Virat Kohli 31; Ravi Bishnoi 2-21, K Gowtham 1-10) against Lucknow Super Giants