Lucknow Super Giants (209/3 in 19 ovs) beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru (203/6 in 19 ovs) by 9 runs via DLS method at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium. LSG vs RCB: HIGHLIGHTS | SCORECARD
For months now, the Ekana Stadium had slowly started becoming the place where Lucknow Super Giants kept finding new ways to lose.
The runs never came consistently enough, the bowling lost control at key moments and the home crowd kept walking out disappointed. Eight straight home defeats stretching back to IPL 2025 had turned Lucknow’s own ground into the exact opposite of an advantage.
And coming into Thursday night against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, things were not exactly looking better.
RCB arrived as one of the form teams of IPL 2026. LSG came in with fading playoff hopes, mounting pressure and a season that had started slipping away fast. On paper, this looked like Bengaluru’s game to control.
Instead, Mitchell Marsh and Prince Yadav completely flipped the mood of the season in one chaotic night at Ekana.
Marsh set the tone first by treating the powerplay like a net session. The Australian opener smashed 111 off 56 balls and never really allowed RCB to breathe. Rain interruptions kept arriving, the game got reduced to 19 overs a side, but Marsh kept attacking as if the breaks only annoyed him more.
Josh Hazlewood disappeared over the straight boundary twice early. Rasikh Dar got thrown into the attack by the fifth over and got welcomed with more punishment. Marsh reached his fastest IPL fifty in just 20 balls and by then, Ekana had finally found its voice again.
The biggest phase of the game came right there.
LSG finished the powerplay on 68 without losing a wicket. RCB, chasing 213, stumbled to 35/2.
That difference never fully 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 vintage Rishabh Pant chaos.
Pant’s unbeaten 32 off 10 balls had everything. A reverse-swept six. One boundary where the bat flew out of his hands after contact. Absolute madness for a few minutes that pushed LSG beyond 200 and left RCB chasing the game from the start.
But even then, against a batting lineup full of chase specialists, nobody in Lucknow was relaxing yet.
Not until Prince Yadav delivered the night of his IPL career.
PRINCE YADAV TURNS PRESSURE INTO PRIME
Prince’s evening actually began badly.
A misfield leaked four runs and briefly 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 too.
First came a sharp catch after Mohammed Shami dismissed Jacob Bethell cheaply once again. Then came the ball that shook the stadium.
Virat Kohli cleaned up for a two-ball duck.
The reaction said everything. Kohli has rescued RCB too many times in these situations for anybody to feel comfortable while he is around. But Prince attacked the stumps, hit them hard and suddenly the chase master had no answer.
And Prince was not done.
When Rajat Patidar started counterattacking brilliantly with a 31-ball 61 and Devdutt Padikkal quietly kept the innings moving, RCB looked ready for another comeback.
That was exactly when Prince returned and removed Padikkal.
Three wickets. Figures of 3/33. But more importantly, wickets that kept arriving exactly when LSG were beginning to panic again.
LSG SURVIVE ONE FINAL RCB SCARE
Even after all that, RCB still nearly stole the game.
The decision to send Jitesh Sharma ahead of Tim David after Padikkal’s wicket did not work as the wicketkeeper managed just one run. But once David arrived, the mood shifted immediately.
His 17-ball 40 suddenly made the impossible start looking very possible.
Every boundary brought new tension into the LSG dugout before Shahbaz Ahmed finally dismissed him.
Still, the real drama waited for the final over.
RCB needed 20. Romario Shepherd and Krunal Pandya were at the crease. And inside the LSG huddle, Pant, Marsh, Abdul Samad and Digvesh Rathi were all trying to decide who bowls the final over.
Going with Digvesh looked risky. He had already gone for 40 runs in three overs and bowling spin to Romario and Krunal felt dangerous.
But Pant trusted him anyway.
And for once, RCB’s finishers ran out of answers.
Romario could never properly connect in the final over as LSG closed out a nine-run DLS win that finally ended the long home nightmare.
More importantly, it kept their playoff hopes alive.
Barely. But alive.
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