Lucknow Super Giants must convey their ‘A’ recreation ahead to prevail in opposition to a dominant Kolkata Knight Riders when the 2 groups, marching in the direction of IPL playoffs, conflict in Lucknow on May 5.
With an all-round win by 24 runs over Mumbai Indians propelling the second-placed KKR to 14 factors — another step nearer to qualification — the strain shall be on KL Rahul’s LSG to discover a well beyond the menace that Shreyas Iyer’s facet poses.
Lucknow Super Giants are positioned only one rung beneath KKR at quantity three with 12 factors from 10 matches with six wins and 4 defeats.
With a rampant Sunrisers Hyderabad (12 factors) scorching on inheritor heels at fourth, adopted by the harmful Chennai Super Kings (10 factors) and Delhi Capitals (10 factors) on the factors desk, LSG shall be below strain to keep away from getting right into a mid-table battle because the race for the final-four has intensified.
LSG have been removed from convincing of their earlier task at Ekana Stadium right here as they have been made to work exhausting in a modest 145-run chase by Mumbai Indians, profitable by simply 4 wickets within the final over.
Skipper Rahul and all-rounder Marcus Stoinis have been the important thing gamers for LSG and it stays to be seen if South Africa veteran Quinton de Kock is introduced again in place of younger Arshin Kulkarni, who opened the innings within the final recreation.
Even although he has gone with no fifty because the first recreation, Nicholas Pooran has persistently notched up essential scores however LSG’s total ending expertise is below query following their struggles in opposition to Mumbai Indians.
LSG appeared to have made heavy climate in the direction of the top giving MI an actual sniff by shedding wickets in a flurry and finishing their modest chase with some stutter.
Ayush Badoni has had a subdued run on this IPL and the uncapped Indian participant could be eager to shrug off the rustiness.
LSG’s bowlers can even face a stern check with none of them making an actual dent with particular person brilliance on this IPL. LSG are additionally prone to be with out categorical pacer Mayank Yadav.
Having misplaced solely three of their 11 matches to date, it has taken one thing out of the abnormal to cease KKR of their tracks. CSK used a spin-friendly floor to eke out a win in Chepauk, whereas RR’s all-round class helped them pip KKR in a high-scoring thriller.
If something, KKR’s bowling woes have been uncovered when Punjab Kings recorded IPL’s highest chase ever in opposition to them, however Iyer’s facet has emerged strongly from that setback with two spectacular wins.
However, having trumped MI on a sluggish wicket which uncovered their batting frailties, KKR will goal for a a lot improved efficiency with the bat.
For the second time on this IPL, KKR batters struggled when the ball didn’t come on to the bat they usually have been pressured to alter gears so as to construct a robust goal.
KKR slipped to 57 for 5 at one stage and ran the danger of being shot out for a paltry whole, however Venkatesh Iyer (70) and Manish Pandey (42) got here to the rescue with a high-quality 83-run stand.
Iyer and Pandey have been pressured to soak strain, curb their attacking recreation and look to farm the strike to construct a restoration path for his or her facet earlier than the bowlers carried out an ideal job to safe a 24-run win.
Teams (from):
Lucknow Super Giants: Quinton de Kock, KL Rahul (c & wk), Deepak Hooda, Ayush Badoni, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan, Shamar Joseph, Yash Thakur, Manimaran Siddharth, Prerak Mankad, Arshad Khan, Krishnappa Gowtham, Amit Mishra, Kyle Mayers, Ashton Turner, Matt Henry, Naveen-ul-Haq, Devdutt Padikkal, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Mayank Yadav, Arshin Kulkarni.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Shreyas Iyer (c), KS Bharat (wk), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Andre Russell, Nitish Rana, Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Sakib Hussain, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Gus Atkinson, Allah Ghazanfar, Phil Salt.
Match begins 7:30pm IST.
