Avesh Khan Keeps Winning Games by Barely Touching the Ball
Across three of the most pressure-laden finishes in Lucknow Super Giants' recent history, one figure has quietly appeared at the decisive moment — not with a boundary, not with a six, but simply by running hard and arriving safely at the other end. Avesh Khan, best known for his pace and his ability to take wickets, has carved out an unlikely second identity: the man who wins without scoring. Three times now, across three separate seasons and even across two different franchises, he has been the non-striking presence who converted the final opportunity into a victory.
The Art of Winning Without Scoring
What makes Avesh's record genuinely unusual is its consistency across wildly different circumstances. In the IPL 2023 fixture between Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Chinnaswamy Stadium, LSG were chasing a formidable 213 after Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis, and Glenn Maxwell had powered the opposition to 212 for 2. With the requirement reduced to one run off the final delivery, Harshal Patel attempted a Mankad dismissal targeting Ravi Bishnoi at the non-striker's end — but missed. The ball went through for byes. Avesh Khan, stationed at the other end, ran the single and completed the win. His contribution to the runs column: zero.
The pattern repeated itself a year later, in circumstances even stranger. During IPL 2024, Avesh was representing Rajasthan Royals against Kolkata Knight Riders, who had posted 223 for 6 — a total built substantially on a Sunil Narine century. Avesh himself had dismissed Phil Salt and Andre Russell earlier in that innings. In the chase, Jos Buttler carried the Royals close before the equation narrowed to one run off one ball. Buttler clipped the delivery to the leg side, completed the single, and the Royals won. The run was Avesh's. He had not faced a single delivery the entire innings.
The 2026 Moment: A Single Run, Earned This Time
The most recent chapter arrived in IPL 2026, when Lucknow Super Giants hosted Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens. KKR posted 181 in their allotted overs — a respectable but chaseable total. LSG's top order faltered, and it fell to Mukul Choudhary and Ayush Badoni to stabilize the innings at a critical juncture. When the final delivery arrived, the equation remained one run to win, with Mukul at the crease and Avesh at the non-striker's end. Mukul missed the ball entirely. Avesh ran. He made it to the crease in time. LSG won. This time, Avesh was credited with the single — his most productive contribution yet across three such finishes.
What This Record Actually Reveals
There is a genuine curiosity embedded in this sequence of events. Running a single off a missed delivery, or converting a leg-side clip into a winning run, requires composure and sharp situational awareness. The ability to read the moment, stay calm, and execute a physical action correctly under maximum pressure is not trivial — especially for a bowler who rarely finds himself at the crease during tense run chases. Each of these three situations demanded that Avesh respond immediately and correctly to something unexpected: a missed Mankad, a ball deflecting off the body, a complete miss by the striker.
The broader implication is about how victories are actually constructed in high-pressure finishes. Winning margins of one run are rare enough to be celebrated as extraordinary. The narrative tends to settle on the batter who played the decisive stroke — Stoinis, Pooran, Buttler, Badoni. But the person at the other end is equally necessary. Avesh's three appearances in this role, spanning three seasons and two franchises, suggest that his calm temperament and physical readiness at the non-striker's end have been a quiet but recurring factor in some of the franchise's most memorable wins. That is a specific and verifiable contribution, even if it resists easy statistical capture.
