Bengaluru beats Lucknow by 5 wickets to move atop Indian Premier League

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BENGALURU, India (AP) — Royal Challengers Bengaluru dismantled Lucknow Super Giants with incisive pace bowling in a five-wicket win to move atop the Indian Premier League on Wednesday.

Fast bowlers Rasikh Salam (4-24), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (3-27) and Australian Josh Hazlewood (1-20) shared eight wickets as Lucknow got bowled out for 146 after Bengaluru won the toss and elected to chase.

Virat Kohli, as an impact substitute, missed out on his third half-century of the season, but his 49 off 34 balls and impactful aggression in the power play led Bengaluru to 149-5 with nearly five overs to spare.

Lucknow got an injury scare when captain Rishabh Pant didn’t keep wickets after Hazlewood’s short ball struck the left-hander hard on his left elbow. Pant returned to bat but got dismissed for 1 off six balls when Phil Salt took a brilliant running catch at deep backward square leg.

Kohli struck six fours and a six off the first 14 balls he faced and set the platform of a solid run chase as Bengaluru raced to 60-1 runs inside the first six overs. Kohli holed out to long-on in the 11th over as he tried to complete a half-century with an ambitious shot against fast bowler Avesh Khan (2-23).

Rajat Patidar (27) and Jitesh Sharma (23) made sure Bengaluru displaced Rajasthan Royals from IPL's top spot on net run-rate with brisk knocks as the defending champions notched their fourth victory.

Fast bowler Prince Yadav, who removed Salt early in Bengaluru’s run-chase, dismissed both Patidar and Sharma in one over.

Earlier, Kumar and Hazlewood didn’t allow Lucknow to build momentum in the power play and Salam struck early when Aiden Markram (12) missed out on a low full toss and offered a tame catch at covers of a leading edge.

After Pant got retired hurt, Nicholas Pooran’s (1) disappointing season continued when the West Indian left-hander got dismissed for his third single-digit score in five games and was clean bowled by Hazlewood.

Left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya (2-38), who also completed 100 wickets in the IPL, then got quick wickets of Mitchell Marsh (40) and Abdul Samad (0) as Lucknow slumped to 83-4 in the 12th over.

Ayush Badoni made 38 off 24 balls before he Salam found the outside edge of the bat in his return spell. Mukul Choudhary made 39 off 28 balls but was one of the two Salam’s wickets in the final over.

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