"Even during the last time out, the thing we talked about was making sure we scrap till the end" - Mike Hesson on RCB's loss against LSG in IPL 2023 

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) director of cricket, Mike Hesson, assessed the team's last-ball defeat to the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday, April 10.

RCB and LSG played out a high-scoring thriller where the visitors prevailed after a few nervy moments towards the end in the run chase. The KL Rahul-led side won by one wicket to hand RCB their second loss on the trot.

Admitting RCB could not absorb pressure in the middle overs, Hesson said on RCB Game Day Review:

"We saw an amazing innings from Stoinis and Pooran and we couldn't quite absorb that pressure, but we still fought hard. Even during the last time out, the thing we talked about was making sure we scrap till the end.

"We knew that if we got a wicket, we could get ourselves back in the game. I certainly can't fault the effort in the fact that we hung there right till the end."

RCB once again found themselves in a commanding position during the contest after their superlative batting performance and powerplay bowling. However, Marcus Stoinis caused a momentum shift with a valuable fifty while Nicholas Pooran took LSG to the brink of victory with his record half-century.

When asked whether RCB were potentially short of runs in the first innings, Hesson replied by stating that it's impossible to go out with the intent of scoring 250 runs while batting first. He said:

"It is far too hard to think that you are going to go out and try to score 250 every game. When you have got the opposition for 33-3, you are in a strong position, but once two guys get in, it is hard to defend here and the ball is getting on nicely. Spinners could not quite create those dot balls, we sort of bled a few too many there."

RCB posted an imposing total of 212-2 after being put into bat first by KL Rahul. The top three - Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis, and Glenn Maxwell - all struck half-centuries before their displays were overshadowed by Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran in the run chase.

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"It got them to a point where it was pretty hard for them to lose" - Mike Hesson on Nicholas Pooran's whirlwind innings

Nicholas Pooran scored 62 off just 19 deliveries to completely shift the contest in favor of LSG.

The Caribbean batter was awarded the Player of the Match award for his exploits, which saw him score the second joint-fastest fifty in the IPL and the fastest in IPL 2023 so far.

Crediting Pooran for his innings, Hesson said:

"A great game of cricket, one that we would have loved to have got over the line, but sometimes you just have to credit for Pooran's innings. It got them to a point where it was pretty hard for them to lose,"

Following Pooran's dismissal, RCB remained in the hunt to take the wickets of Ayush Badoni and Jaydev Unadkat. However, they could not enforce a super over after the last wicket pair managed to score the final run on the last ball with a bye.