A cradle lullaby contest is on the cards when the Lucknow Super Giants face the Punjab Kings at the heaven of the slow pitches of India at Ekana Sports City, Lucknow.
Lucknow Super Giants are reeling at the bottom of the table with a defeat against Rajasthan Royals at Jaipur and would be ready to battle and test the opposition at their home ground at Lucknow. With the pitch being slow and offering good sleep for the people who watch, it will be interesting to see how they would make it a rollicking contest. Punjab Kings after the back of a win and a loss would be ready to face the Giants and pocket two points to their bag today and stay at the top 5 positions.
Probable XI:
Lucknow Super Giants: KL Rahul (C & WK), Quinton de Kock*, Devdutt Paddikal, Nicholas Pooran*, Deepak Hooda, Marcus Stoinis*, Krunal Pandya, Ayush Badoni, Mohsin Khan, Ravi Bishnoi, Naveen-Ul-Haq*
Impact Subs: Yash Thakur / Mayank Yadav
Punjab Kings: Shikhar Dhawan (C), Johnny Bairstow*, Prabhsimran Singh, Liam Livingstone*, Shashank Singh, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Sam Curran*, Harshal Patel, Kagiso Rabada*, Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Brar
Impact Subs: Harpreet Singh Bhatia / Arshdeep Singh
Lucknow Super Giants did not have the best of starts to the tournament as Nandre Burger, Sandeep Sharma and Trent Boult stopped them from reaching the target. Rajasthan ran through the bowling attack of Lucknow with Samson and Parag tearing apart and making the bowlers look clueless. With the Lucknow pitch assisting slow cutters and slow balls wherein Mohsin and Naveen Ul Haq can ensure they bowl economically and do not give much to the opposition today and ensure a comfortable win and pocket the first win points of the season.
Punjab, on the other hand, had contrasting results to their IPL season. They were almost out of the race in their first match against Delhi Capitals but the English duo of Sam Curran and Liam Livingstone had other plans and they comfortably took their team to the podium safely. But, that did not do good anything in their second match against RCB where they lost the plot and gave away the two points they would have had to pocket.
With Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Brar, Sam Curran on the Punjab side and Ravi Bishnoi, Krunal Pandya and Naveen-Ul-Haq on the Lucknow side, it would be a battle of the slow balls and cutters and the googlies and the flippers at the Ekana Sports City today evening.
Weather and Pitch Report:
This is another typical IPL pitch, favouring batters and offering hardly anything to bowlers. However, it may provide some assistance to slower bowlers. This is the first time an IPL 2024 match will be played at this venue, so there is no prior point of comparison on how this year’s pitches may behave.
In LSG’s first match ever at the Ekana, they scored 193/6 against Delhi Capitals (DC) in IPL 2023, thanks to a fantastic debut by Kyle Mayers (73 off 38 balls). It is the highest IPL score in an innings at the venue. The only fifer here was by Mark Wood in the DC match.
The temperature will be around 32 degrees in Lucknow when the match starts. It will slightly cool down to 27 degrees later during the match. There is no chance of rain while the humidity won’t go beyond 40%.
Stats Corner:
Lucknow and Punjab have played only 3 IPL matches so far since LSG debuted in IPL 2022. LSG have won 2 of those and Punjab 1.
Lucknow’s highest total against PBKS so far is 257, and Punjab’s highest score against LSG is 201.
Most wickets for LSG vs PBKS: Ravi Bishnoi (5)
Most Wickets for PBKS vs LSG: Kagiso Rabada (8).
Quinton de Kock needs 89 runs to reach 3000 runs in IPL.
Nicholas Pooran needs 5 sixes to reach 100 sixes in IPL.
Shikhar Dhawan needs 1 six to reach 150 sixes in IPL.
Prabhsimran Singh needs 27 runs to reach 500 runs in IPL.
(Source: mint.com, myKhel.com, Cricbuzz)
Match Details:
Time: 7: 30 PM IST
Venue: Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow
Live broadcast: Star Sports Network
Live streaming: JioCinema app
Predicted Dream XI:
