In the match 31 of IPL 2022, Royal Challengers Bangalore handed close defeat to new franchise – Lucknow Super Giants. RCB won the match by 18 runs as LSG failed to chase the target of 182 runs and score 163/8. Faf du Plessis was declared as Player of the Match for his innings of 96 runs which took RCB to 181 runs.

RCB bowlers never allowed LSG batters to score freely as skipper Faf du Plessis rotated them frequently. Josh Hazlewood was the most successful bowler for RCB as he took 4 wickets and just gave away 25 runs in his spell. This includes the big wicket of Marcus Stoinis in his final over (19th of innings) which sealed the match for RCB.

Krunal Pandya was the top scorer for LSG as other batters failed to play a long innings. Captain KL Rahul was undone by a superb review off Harshal Patel. Patel bowled a slower one down the leg side which Rahul tried to glance. Umpire didn’t signalled a wide but RCB opted to review and UltraEdge showed a minor spike as the ball passes the bat.

Faf du Plessis show in RCB Batting

Earlier, after winning the toss, LSG skipper KL Rahul invited RCB to bat first. RCB lost Anuj Rawat & Virat Kohli within first over and Maxwell in the final over of the powerplay. However, RCB Skipper Faf du Plessis started slow but then went on to score big. Du Plessis was dismissed for 96 runs off 64 balls in the final over.

Faf got good support from Shahbaz Ahmed who scored 26 off 22 in 70 runs partnership. Then Dinesh Karthik who remained unbeaten at 13 off 8 also played good hand. RCB scored 181/6 in 20 overs which proved to be sufficient to defend.

With the victory RCB moved to 2nd place in IPL 2022 Points table with 10  points from 7 matches. On the other hand, LSG dropped down to 4th place with 8 points from 7 matches.

Match 31 – LSG VS RCB Scorecard

Match 31 – LSG VS RCB HIghlights

Match 31 –> Watch full highlights of IPL 2022 – LSG vs RCB .

Also check the latest updated IPL 2022 Points table here.