New Delhi: It seems in their title defence, Royal Challengers Bengaluru could do no wrong after cruising to a five-wicket win over Lucknow Super Giants in IPL 2026 on Wednesday that took them to the top of the standings with a superior run rate.
Once they won the toss and opted to field, their bowlers stuck to their plans diligently to bowl out LSG for only 146 and then Virat Kohli, playing as an ‘Impact Sub’ for the first time in his career, took them past the finishing line in 15.1 overs.
Kohli, who now holds the Orange Cap, opened the innings and batted with authority for 49 in 34 balls, with the help of six boundaries and one sixes, but it was the united effort of their bowlers that set up their fourth victory in five matches.
RCB skipper Rajat Patidar (27) and Jitesh Sharma (23) added some lusty hits to bring about an early finish to the match, with 29 balls to spare, that kept LSG rooted at seventh with two wins in five matches.
RCB bowlers rule
Be it Rasikh Salam Dar (4/24), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (3/27), Krunal Pandya (2/38) or Josh Hazlewood (1/20), everyone stuck to their task of bowling at the stumps on a slowish track.
It paid rich dividends as LSG batters e masse struggled to connect attempted big hits and perished at regular intervals.
The away team’s trouble with the fall of Aiden Markram (12) and Nicholas Pooram (1) within seven overs with the score at 35.
With the powerplay overs hardly yielding any runs, LSG tried to push up their scoring rate but lost Mitchell Marsh (40) and Abdul Samad (0) again in quick succession to get reduced to 83 for four in 11.2 overs.
In between skipper Rishabh Pant (1) retired hurt after being struck in the hand, returning to the crease to get dismissed without adding anything to his score.
Ayush Badoni (38) and Mukul Choudhary batted sensibly to get them over 140 but their efforst to push towards 160 was thwarted as they lost their last four wicket for nine runs in the last nine deliverie of their innings.