Lucknow Super Giants (209/3 in 19 OV) defeated Royal Challengers Bengaluru (203/6 in 19 OV) by 9 runs by DLS method at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium. LSG vs RCB: MAIN | SCORECARD
The Ekana Stadium has slowly started to become a place where Lucknow Super Giants have been finding new ways to lose for months now.
The runs were never consistent enough, the bowling lost control at key moments and the home crowd left disappointed. Eight straight home defeats, stretching back to IPL 2025, have turned Lucknow’s home ground into the opposite of an advantage.
And going into the Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Thursday night, things didn’t look much better.
RCB arrived as one of the formal teams of IPL 2026. LSG entered with fading playoff hopes, mounting pressure and a season that started to wind down fast. On paper, it looked like a game to control Bengaluru.
Instead, Mitchell Marsh and Prince Yadav turned the mood of the season completely upside down in one chaotic night at Ekana.
Marsh set the tone first, treating the power play like a net. The Australian opener smashed 111 off 56 balls and never allowed RCB to breathe. The rain kept coming, the game reduced to 19 overs a side, but Marsh kept attacking as if the breaks were bothering him even more.
Josh Hazlewood had disappeared over the straight boundary twice earlier. Rasikh Dar was thrown into the attack in the fifth over and was greeted with more punishment. Marsh reached his fastest IPL fifty in just 20 balls and by then Ekana had finally found her voice again.
It was there that the biggest phase of the game came.
LSG finished the powerplay on 68 without losing a wicket. RCB, chasing 213, stumbled to 35/2.
That difference never completely disappeared from the game.
Alongside Arshin Kulkarni, Marsh added 95 for the opening wicket before Nicholas Pooran kept the pressure on with a quick 38. Then came a small reminder of the chaos of Rishabh Pant’s vintage.
Pant’s unbeaten 32 off 10 balls had it all. Reverse swept six. One boundary where the bat flew out of his hands after contact. Absolute madness for a few minutes that pushed LSG past 200 and left RCB chasing the game from the start.
But even then, against a batting line-up full of chase specialists, no one was resting in Lucknow.
Not until Prince Yadav delivered the night of his IPL career.
PRINCE YADAV TURN PRESSURE INTO MAIN
The prince’s evening actually got off to a bad start.
The errant fielding conceded four runs and succinctly summed up the nervous energy around LSG this season. But within minutes the young pacer completely changed the game and probably his own IPL story.
First came a blistering catch after Mohammed Shami again dismissed Jacob Bethell cheaply. Then came the ball that shook the stadium.
Virat Kohli cleaned up a two-ball duck.
The reaction said it all. Kohli has saved RCB too many times in these situations for anyone to feel comfortable around him. But Prince attacked the stumps, crashed hard into them, and suddenly the master of the chase had no answer.
And Prince wasn’t done.
With Rajat Patidar starting a brilliant counter-attack with a 31-ball 61 and Devdutt Padikkal quietly keeping the innings moving, RCB looked set for another comeback.
That was exactly when Prince came back and removed Padikkal.
Three goals. Data 3/33. But more importantly, the goals that came just as LSG were starting to panic again.
LSG SURVIVE ONE FINAL TERROR RCB
Even after all that, RCB almost stole the game.
The decision to send Jitesh Sharma in front of Tim David after Padikkala’s wicket didn’t work as the keeper only managed one run. But once David arrived, the mood immediately changed.
His 17-ball 40 suddenly made the impossible look very possible.
Each boundary brought new tension to LSG’s innings before Shahbaz Ahmed finally dismissed him.
However, the real drama was waiting until the finale.
RCB needed 20. Romario Shepherd and Krunal Pandya were at the crease. And inside the LSG group, Pant, Marsh, Abdul Samad and Digvesh Rathi were all trying to decide who would play the final.
Going with Digvesh seemed risky. He had already made 40 runs in three overs and the bowling turned to Romario and Krunal felt dangerous.
But Pant believed him anyway.
And for once RCB finishers ran out of answers.
Romario could never really connect in the final as LSG wrapped up a nine-run DLS victory that finally ended a long domestic nightmare.
More importantly, it kept their playoff hopes alive.
Barely. But alive.
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Issued by:
Debodinna Chakraborty
Published on:
May 8, 2026 0:47 AM IST
