Marsh ton keeps LSG alive as RCB miss top spot chance

A 20-run final over can make even calm captains look nervous. Rishabh Pant chose trust instead.

With Royal Challengers Bengaluru still swinging, and Romario Shepherd dangerous at the crease, Pant gave the ball to Digvesh Rathi. The ask was simple on paper and brutal in reality. Defend 20, protect Lucknow’s season, and do it against a champion side chasing top spot.

Rathi gave away only 10. Lucknow Super Giants beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru by 9 runs in Lucknow, keeping their IPL 2026 campaign alive, even if only through the familiar IPL language of ifs, buts, and calculators.

Marsh turns Lucknow’s night around

This game began with Mitchell Marsh treating the Powerplay like a personal net session. Lucknow batted first in a rain-shortened 19-over contest and reached 209 for 3.

Because of the DLS method, RCB’s target became 213. In plain English, the rain adjustment asked Bengaluru to score faster than Lucknow had scored.

Marsh led that push with a superb 111 off 56 balls. He hit 9 fours and 9 sixes, which tells you the kind of innings it was. Not a nudged hundred. Not a slow build. This was proper damage.

The opening stand with Arshin Kulkarni gave Lucknow the launchpad. Kulkarni made 17 off 24, but his role was not about flash. He stayed long enough for Marsh to control the early rhythm.

Marsh then turned a good start into a threatening total. Once he got set, RCB’s bowlers had little room for error. Even good balls disappeared when they missed by a few inches.

Nicholas Pooran added 38 off 23 balls, keeping the innings moving after Kulkarni fell. Then came Pant’s late cameo. His unbeaten 32 off 10 balls gave Lucknow the finish they badly needed.

That final burst mattered. In a shortened game, 15 balls can change everything. Pant’s 4 fours and 2 sixes pushed Lucknow beyond a competitive score and into a zone where RCB had to chase almost perfectly.

For RCB, Josh Hazlewood, Krunal Pandya and Rasikh Salam took 1 wicket each. But the bigger issue was control. Against Marsh and Pant, they lost that control at the worst possible stages.

RCB stumble before fighting back

Chasing 213 in 19 overs sounds thrilling for viewers. For batters, it is a narrow bridge. You cannot wait too long, but you cannot panic either.

RCB started badly. Mohammed Shami removed Jacob Bethell for 4 in the first over. In the second over, Prince Yadav dismissed Virat Kohli for a duck.

That was the first real crack in the chase. Kohli’s early wicket changes the mood of any RCB innings. It also changes how the dressing room reads the chase.

Suddenly, the target looked taller. The required rate was already high, and RCB had lost 2 wickets before settling down.

Rajat Patidar and Devdutt Padikkal then repaired the innings with a 95-run stand from 53 balls. This was the phase where RCB pulled the match back from the edge.

Patidar played the sharper hand. His 61 off 31 balls gave RCB belief and momentum. Padikkal’s 35 off 25 gave him support, though Lucknow would have accepted that scoring rate.

The partnership did what good T20 partnerships do. It bought time without freezing the innings. It made the chase look possible again.

But a chase like this rarely turns on one wicket alone. It turns when one over takes away two options. Prince Yadav did exactly that in the 11th over.

Prince Yadav breaks the chase

Prince Yadav had already taken the biggest early wicket by dismissing Kohli. Then he returned to hit RCB again when they looked settled.

He removed Padikkal for 35. In the same over, he also got Jitesh Sharma. That double strike changed the match’s shape.

RCB still had hitters left. But Lucknow had broken the set pair and forced new batters to attack from ball one. That is never easy when the asking rate is climbing.

Prince finished with 3 wickets, the best figures for Lucknow on the night. His spell gave Pant the middle-over control captains keep searching for in high-scoring games.

Shahbaz Ahmed then played his part with 2 important wickets. He stopped Patidar’s 61 and later removed Tim David, who had smashed 40 off 17 balls.

David’s wicket was huge. At that point, he looked capable of making the chase vanish in 2 overs. In T20 cricket, that is not drama. That is maths.

Once David went, RCB still had Krunal Pandya and Shepherd. They did not need a miracle, but they needed a clean finish. Krunal made 28 off 16. Shepherd made 23 off 15.

The pair brought the match back to life in the final overs. RCB fans have seen enough late chaos to believe. Lucknow fans have suffered enough late chaos to worry.

Pant’s call survives final over

The last over needed 20. Many captains would have gone for pace, especially with Shepherd waiting to free his arms.

Pant chose Digvesh Rathi. That decision carried risk. A spinner bowling the final over in a wet, pressure-heavy chase can look brave or foolish within 3 balls.

Rathi made it look clear-headed. He did not win the over by magic. He won it by denying the big hit often enough.

He conceded only 10, and Lucknow won by 9 runs. That margin tells the story. One hit could have changed the result. One missed length could have handed RCB the game.

For Pant, the decision will matter beyond the scorecard. Captains earn dressing-room trust through these calls. When a young or less established bowler gets the final over and delivers, the whole side feels it.

For Lucknow, this was more than 2 points. It kept their playoff hopes alive, even if they still need results elsewhere to behave kindly. In the IPL, that is usually how mid-table survival works.

For RCB, this defeat hurt in two ways. They lost the match and missed a chance to move to number one. Defending champions do not panic after one bad night, but they do notice patterns.

Their top order failed early. Their bowlers allowed 209 in 19 overs. Their finishers came close, but not close enough. In a season this tight, each of those small misses carries weight.

The beauty of this league is also its cruelty. Marsh can play a career-marking innings, Prince can bowl the spell of the night, and Rathi can hold his nerve under lights. Still, by morning, the table will ask only one question: what does it mean for qualification?

For ordinary fans, especially those watching with phones open and points-table screenshots ready, Lucknow’s win keeps the tournament nicely messy. RCB remain strong, but not untouchable. LSG remain alive, but not safe. And that is exactly the kind of late-season tension the IPL sells better than anyone else.