LUCKNOW: After facing a setback in their opening game against Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) will aim to register their first victory in the ongoing season when they face Punjab Kings at the Ekana international cricket stadium on Saturday.
With zero points, LSG are at the bottom of the points table, having lost the only match that they played. Punjab Kings hold fifth position after winning one of their two matches.
LSG will play their first home match of this IPL season.
Opening batter
Quinton de Kock
had faltered against Rajasthan Royals in his first match and LSG need some explosive batting from his side for Saturday’s match. Top-order batter
Devdutt Padikkal
failed to open his account against Rajasthan while
Marcus Stoinis
could not make his mark either. Barring
KL Rahul
and
Nicholas Pooran
, who scored 50 in their first match, LSG batters failed miserably in their first outing.
On the bowling front, LSG pacer Yash Thakur proved to be very expensive. In the absence of Mark Wood and David Willey, LSG’s pace battery looks thin with Mohsin Khan, Naveen-ul-Haq and Yash Thakur expected to do heavy lifting.
As for the pitch, after the last IPL season, the square was relaid. After that there were good matches in the World Cup last year and the pitches performed well in ICC men’s ODI World Cup. In the current scenario, the wickets are likely to be batter friendly.
Punjab Kings, on the other hand, appear to be on a sound footing. Punjab won against Delhi in their inaugural match but lost their second match to Bengaluru. For them, allrounder Sam Curran and skipper
Shikhar Dhawan
are in tremendous form. Their bowling unit has also done well in the first two games. They come into this match with confidence.
While Sam Curran has shown his prowess with the bat in the two matches, the left-arm seamer has been wayward with the ball. Lead pacer Kagiso Rabada will look for more support from Curran, Arshdeep Singh and Harshal Patel.
LSG skipper Rahul didn’t want to read too much into his team’s loss in the opening match against RR. “It is just the first game and I am not going to make too much out of it or over-analyse,” Rahul had said. “Powerplay is crucial for every team, and I don’t think any team has cracked it yet. Mohsin (Khan) was our Powerplay bowler in the first season, but he wasn’t fully fit last season. Good to see him back.”
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