It was a story of missed chances for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in their last-ball loss to Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) match on Monday night.
Defending 212, RCB reduced LSG to 105/5 in the 12th over before a stunning assault by Nicholas Pooran (62 off 19 balls) took the Lucknow outfit to the threshold of victory at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
LSG needed five off the final over bowled by Harshal Patel with two wickets hand. The medium-pacer dismissed Jaydev Unadkat off the penultimate ball with the scores tied.
Harshal then had a golden chance to tie the game and take the match into a 'Super Over'. But he failed to run out Ravi Bishnoi at the non-striker's end for backing up too far. He slipped while trying to dislodge the bails.
Though Harshal recovered to hit the target with Bishnoi well short of the crease, the non-striker was declared not out. Harshal was through his bowling action and hence the run-out did not count.
Law (38.3.1.2 ) states: "Even if the non-striker had left his/her ground before the instant at which the bowler would normally have been expected to release the ball, once the bowler has reached that point it is no longer possible for the bowler to run out the non-striker under this Law."
RCB keeper Dinesh Karthik then fumbled to collect the ball after last-man Avesh Khan failed to make contact off the final delivery. Avesh and Bishnoi scrambled through for a bye to complete a thrilling one-wicket win for LSG.
