BENGALURU: Royal Challengers Bengaluru bowlers led by the impeccable Josh Hazlewood preyed on the batting vulnerabilities of Lucknow Super Giants to bundle out the visitors for a sub-par 146 in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
The night turned out to be even grimmer for the Super Giants as their skipper Rishabh Pant had to retire hurt on zero after a copping a blow on his left elbow by RCB pacer Hazlewood.
However, Pant returned to bat briefly later when his side was struggling at 118 for five after the dismissal of Ayush Badoni in the 16th over.
The Australian pacer bowled three overs in the Power Play that read a scarcely believable 3-0-10-1, helping RCB restrict LSG to a way below par 35 for one in the Power Play.
Apart from cutting short a struggling Pant’s tenure brutally, Hazlewood (4-0-20-1) inflicted more pain on LSG by dismissing out for form Nicholas Pooran, who dragged the pacer on to his stumps.
The lengths of Hazlewood, who returned in place of Jacob Duffy for this match, was so immaculate that none of the LSG batters could find any space to get him away.
RCB will also heave a sigh of relief after seeing the Aussie back at his best after a lacklustre outing against Rajasthan Royals a few days ago. He received by superb support from veteran pace colleague Bhuvneshwar Kumar (3/27), who found appreciable swing to trouble LSG batters.
Mitchell Marsh played some big shots two massive sixes off Bhuvneshwar, which sailed out of the stadium, and Krunal Pandya during his 32-ball 40.
But Pandya cleverly reduced his pace, forcing Marsh to reach out for the ball which resulted in him edging the ball on to his stumps.
The Chinnaswamy stadium pitch was on the slower side compared to previous matches here, but certainly nothing was in it the batters could not have negotiated.
In fact, the LSG batters were able to take a good chunk of runs off spinners Suyash Sharma and Pandya on the night 72 runs across eight overs.
Pant lasted only a couple of balls, whipping Bhuvneshwar to Phil Salt in the deep.
Badoni (38, 24b) and Mukul Choudhary (39, 28b) tried their best to resuscitate the LSG innings but the damage done at the top was too vast to mitigate.
They fumbled in the last five overs too, making only 34 runs for the loss of six wickets.