Set to be clad in native giants Mohun Bagan’s iconic inexperienced and maroon jersey, Lucknow Super Giants would discover themselves at house as they give the impression of being to seal their playoff berth knocking out a hapless Kolkata Knight Riders within the last IPL sport, in Kolkata on May 20.
The actual house workforce on this case, KKR, haven’t solely complained of being let down by the situations however their issues go deeper, having struggled to discover a good successful mixture in a topsy-turvy season, enduring seven defeats. Out of these seven, 4 losses have been on the Eden Gardens.
Be it the batting, which nonetheless appears to be a piece in progress, the bowling, particularly tempo division, has additionally seemed terribly brief on expertise.
In fielding, they’ve made a mockery of themselves with among the efforts suggesting that the two-time champions have confirmed they don’t ‘belong’ at this stage.
KKR batters merely haven’t been in a position to adapt to the floor whereas batting first as they scored below-par totals of 179/7 and 149/8 against Gujarat Titans and Rajasthan Royals respectively.
Putting issues into perspective, CSK and SRH scored 235/4 and 228/4 once they have been put into bat by KKR on the identical venue.
Courtesy, some particular person brilliance from Rinku Singh and Varun Chakravarthy, the KKR nonetheless are fortunate to have been in a position to hold their marketing campaign alive in ‘blow hot-n-cold’ season.
With a heavy mid-table site visitors, there’s a risk of 4 groups to be locked on 14 factors with the one with a superior web run-rate making the playoffs.
Hanging by the thread, KKR with 12 factors wouldn’t solely have to win by an enormous margin, however they should depend on Punjab Kings (vs Rajasthan Royals), Gujarat Titans (vs Royal Challengers Bangalore) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (Mumbai Indians) to win their respective matches.
LSG nevertheless don’t have to stress a lot concerning the mathematical situations as a win could be sufficient for them to seal their back-to-back playoff berth.
On momentum too, LSG look far superior to a struggling KKR who’ve struggled to get into the act at their house den.
Elevated to captaincy after KL Rahul’s pull-out due to damage on the enterprise finish of the season, Krunal Pandya seemed a pure chief, particularly the way in which he managed to choke Mumbai Indians whereas defending 177 speaks volumes about his captaincy.
Not solely did he look closely concerned, his tactical bowling modifications paved the way in which for his or her slender five-run win the opposite day.
Marcus Stoinis is proving to be the disaster man for LSG and was the distinction of their gorgeous win over MI.
He introduced all his expertise into depend to attain an 89 not out to revive their innings from being 35/3.
In bowling Mohsin Khan has been a revelation as he together with spinner Ravi Bishnoi would look to relish the sluggish situations of Eden.
LSG, who shall be donning a particular version Mohun Bagan colors, will additional be bolstered by the help of the soccer heavyweights with each the groups have the identical proprietor, RP Sanjiv Goenka Group.
Behind the scenes, LSG mentor Gautam Gambhir, who led KKR to their two triumphs in 2012 and 2014, will add all the precious inputs.
For KKR, it is time to return to drafting board and mirror on the season that has gone flawed.
Squads
Kolkata Knight Riders: Nitish Rana (c), Jason Roy, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Lockie Ferguson, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Anukul Roy, Rinku Singh, N. Jagadeesan, Vaibhav Arora, Suyash Sharma, David Wiese, Kulwant Khejroliya, Litton Das, Mandeep Singh and Aarya Desai.
Lucknow Super Giants: Krunal Pandya (c), Ayush Badoni, Karan Sharma, Manan Vohra, Quinton de Kock, Marcus Stoinis, Krishnappa Gowtham, Deepak Hooda, Kyle Mayers, Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan, Mark Wood, Mayank Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, Nicholas Pooran, Yash Thakur, Romario Shepherd, Daniel Sams, Amit Mishra, Prerak Mankad, Swapnil Singh, Naveen-ul-Haq, Yudhvir Charak and Karun Nair.
Match begins: 7.30pm.
