IPL2026: RCB fall short despite late fightback as Marsh and Prince lift LSG

For long stretches at the Ekana Stadium, this was a match that kept shifting its weight, first towards Mitchell Marsh, then towards Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and finally back into Lucknow Super Giants' hands. Marsh's splendid 111 off 56 balls and Prince Yadav's incisive 3/33 carried LSG to a nine-run win over the defending champions on Thursday, handing RCB a second successive defeat.

The game had already been trimmed by rain to 19 overs a side, and that small loss of time only seemed to sharpen the drama. LSG made 209/3 after being sent in, and the DLS method left RCB chasing 213. They lost Jacob Bethell and Virat Kohli within 1.2 overs and were 9/2, yet a stirring response from Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar, Tim David, Krunal Pandya and Romario Shepherd kept the chase alive until the final over, where they closed on 203/6.

RCB's pursuit began in disarray. Mohammed Shami dismissed Bethell for 4, with Prince taking the catch in the deep, and Prince then knocked over Kohli for a two-ball duck. Padikkal and Patidar steadied the innings with a 95-run stand that restored shape and tempo. At the end of the powerplay, RCB were 45/2, before Patidar opened up against Digvesh Rathi and Mayank. He struck a four and a six off Digvesh in the seventh over, then two more sixes off him in the ninth, while Padikkal joined in with a boundary. Patidar brought up his half-century in 26 balls with two successive sixes off Mayank, and RCB reached 100 in 9.3 overs.

Just when the chase seemed to be gathering conviction, Prince changed its direction. He removed Padikkal for 34 off 25 balls and then Jitesh Sharma for 1 in the same over, leaving RCB at 106/4 in 10.5 overs. Shahbaz Ahmed then dismissed Patidar for 61 off 31 balls, an innings lit by three fours and six sixes, and RCB slipped to 112/5. David and Krunal kept the asking rate from running away, and David's burst against Mayank, a four followed by two successive sixes, brought the equation down to 63 from the last four overs. Shahbaz, who finished with 2/33, ended that stand by removing David for 40 off 17 balls, with Digvesh holding the catch inside the circle. Shepherd then struck two successive fours to leave RCB needing 47 from the last three overs.

The closing overs were played on a narrowing edge. Shami began one of them with just two runs from the first four balls, but Krunal answered with two back-to-back sixes to reduce the target to 33 from 12 balls. Prince held the penultimate over together despite a boundary from Krunal and a six from Shepherd, leaving 20 needed in the last over with Digvesh entrusted with the ball. Singles came from the first two deliveries, Shepherd was beaten again when RCB needed three sixes from three balls, and though a wide and a four briefly revived the possibility, the chase finally ran out of road. Krunal remained unbeaten on 28 off 16 balls and Shepherd on 23 off 15, but RCB still finished nine short.

If Prince gave LSG the calm at the end, Marsh had given them the force at the start. Opening with Arshin Kulkarni, he moved from caution to command with startling ease, taking 12 off Krunal Pandya in the fourth over, 17 off Rasikh Salam Dar in the fifth and another 12 off Josh Hazlewood in the last over of the powerplay as LSG raced to 68 without loss. Marsh brought up the fastest fifty of his IPL career in 20 balls, with three fours and six sixes, while Kulkarni made 17 off 24 before falling in the 10th over with the score at 95/1. Nicholas Pooran then helped add 70 for the second wicket, making a fluent 38 off 23 balls, before Marsh surged to his century in 49 balls against Romario Shepherd. Hazlewood eventually dismissed him for 111, caught by Bethell, but the finish still belonged to Rishabh Pant, whose 32 off 10 balls, including 14 from the last three deliveries after Pooran fell in the final over, lifted LSG past 200. Hazlewood, Krunal and Rasikh took one wicket each for RCB.

The result gave LSG only their third win of the season, alongside seven defeats, and they remained at the bottom of the table. RCB, beaten for the fourth time in the competition, slipped to third. On a night shortened by rain and stretched by tension, Marsh's hundred set the game in motion, Prince's spell steadied it for Lucknow, and RCB's late charge, brave and noisy as it was, arrived nine runs too late.