Mitch Marsh has signed off from the Indian Premier League with another half-century, and combined in a blistering 152-run partnership in 77 balls with Rishabh Pant, but Justin Langer's Lucknow Super Giants still lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
The result meant RCB finished second in the regular season and earned a place in the qualifier play-off, where they will play Ricky Ponting's Punjab Kings, rather than the eliminator.
LSG's expensively-recruited captain Pant, whose form has been dreadful, made an unbeaten 118 off 61 balls and Marsh 67 off 37 as the home team piled up 3-227.
But RCB knocked off the runs with six wickets and eight balls to spare, achieving the third-highest run-chase in IPL history with 4-230.
After Virat Kohli's 54 off 30 balls set the platform Jitesh Sharma blasted RCB to victory with 85 not out off 33 balls. New Zealand's Will O'Rouke's four overs cost 74 runs, for two wickets, two short of Jofra Archer's unwanted record for the IPL's most expensive bowling.
The victor of RCB v Punjab on Thursday (local time) will go into Tuesday's final while the loser will face the winner of Friday's eliminator between Gujurat Titans and Mumbai Indians on Sunday.
LSG have long been out of contention, finishing seventh, but Marsh ended the campaign with six fifties and a century, scoring 627 runs at 48.23 and a strike-rate of 163.70.
