Nicholas Pooran went ballistic yesterday. The Lucknow Super Giants batter smashed the fastest fifty in IPL 2023. The left-hander reached the 50-run mark in just 15 balls – the joint second-fastest fifty in IPL ever.
Pooran, who came to bat in the 11th over with LSG at 99/4, smashed a huge six off Royal Challengers Bangalore spinner Karn Sharma on his second ball to get things started. He hit five more sixes to take his team to victory against RCB. Pooran adjudged the Man of the Match, seemed confident about his strikes. In the post-match ceremony, he stated, “I knew this was a nice wicket. We could chase even over 50 in the last four, it was about cashing in. The second ball I came in and smashed a six. It isn’t about getting a look in, if it is in my slot, then I will smash it for six.”
We are going to remember THIS knock for a looooong time! 💙
Nicky P, you truly are a 𝐒𝐔𝐏𝐄𝐑 𝐆𝐈𝐀𝐍𝐓 🙌@nicholas_47 | #RCBvLSG | #IPL2023 | #LucknowSuperGiants | #LSG | #GazabAndaz pic.twitter.com/pr1spJlftb
— Lucknow Super Giants (@LucknowIPL) April 10, 2023
He further added, “Over the past couple of years, I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself to finish games. Today also I wanted to finish the game but got out in the end. I hope this is the season for me, in a good space and state of mind. Just want to enjoy my cricket, play with a smile and entertain, and win games for my team.”
The match being played at Bangalore’s M. Chinnaswamy Stadium saw a flurry of fours and sixes. Batting first, RCB scored 212 runs for the fall of two wickets. Their top 3 i.e. Kohli, du Plessis, and Maxwell fired in unison, with each of them scoring half-centuries.
During the chase, Lucknow didn’t have the greatest of starts. The team saw three wickets falling for just 23 runs. However, a counter-attacking performance from Marcus Stoinis steadies their ship. And the duo of Pooran and Ayush Badoni did further damage to Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Pooran’s fifty is the joint-second fastest fifty in the Indian Premier League. The other notable mentions in the list are Sunil Narine vs RCB (15 balls), Yusuf Pathan vs SRH (15 balls), Pat Cummins vs MI (15 balls), and KL Rahul vs DC (14 balls).
