(CMC) – Once again set up by their batting, which included an enterprising 40 not out from West Indies white-ball batsman Nicholas Pooran and was inspired by another destructive spell from fast bowler Mayank Yadav, the Lucknow Super Giants sealed a 28-run win against hosts Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League yesterday.
Pooran, batting at five, smashed five sixes and one four from 21 balls and anchored the second half of the LSG batting, spurring them to 181 for five after they were put in to bat in the Twenty20 match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Yadav followed up with a spell of three for 14 from his allotted four overs, removing the Australia pair of Glenn Maxwell and Cameron Green in successive overs, and the RCB chase ran out of steam after an opening stand of 40 from Virat Kohli and former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis.
Manimaran Siddarth silenced the vocal home crowd when he got Kohli caught at point for 22 in the fifth over, and du Plessis was run out for 19 going for a single in the next over to further set 
back the RCB chase.
Yadav tightened the screws when he got Maxwell caught at mid-on for a second-ball duck in the sixth over, and RCB limped to the close of the Power Play on 48 for three, and they slid further when the fast bowler bowled Green for nine in the eighth over.
Rajat Patidar made 29 and led a bit of a fight-back for RCB with Anuj Rawat, but the asking rate kept rising, and the pressure continued to host on the host, and they crumbled under the pressure.
Yadav got Patidar caught at deep square-leg in the 15th over, and Mahipal Lomror got the top score of 33 while offering RCB a bit of hope of a miracle towards the end of the innings before his dismissal in the 18th over.
The result gave LSG their second win in three matches, and they are fourth in the 10-team standings on four points, while RCB slumped to their third defeat in four matches, and they are ninth on two points.
Earlier, Pooran engineered a strong finish for LSG after South African wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock anchored their batting with a top score of 81 from 56 balls that included eight fours and five sixes.
De Kock dominated an opening stand of 53 with his captain K.L. Rahul and shared 56 with Australia international Marcus Stoinis for the third wicket before his departure in the 17th over with LSG on 143 for four.
The burden of scoring in the closing stages fell to Pooran, and he took the attack to the RCB bowlers in spectacular fashion to push them to an unassailable total.
