In the 10th match of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 Lucknow Super Giants will take on Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Friday.
The last time when Lucknow were here, Kyle Mayers’ belligerent 38-ball 73 and Mark Wood with brilliant figures of 5/14 condemned Delhi Capitals to a 50-run defeat. The team will be facing this time Sunrisers Hyderabad, who suffered a big defeat in their home opener against Rajasthan Royals.
Talking about Lucknow’s performance, they almost breached Chennai Super Kings’ fortress Chepauk in their previous match on April 3. Kyle Mayers (53 off 22) and Nicholas Pooran (32 off 18) led from the front in a stiff run-chase of 217 but LSG eventually fell short of the finish line by 12 runs. Expect the West Indian duo to start again against SRH.
The return of regular opener Quinton de Kock back to the squad also gives captain KL Rahul a good selection headache. Ayush Badoni came lower down the order and provided a strong finish in both the previous games.
Purple cap holder Mark Wood, with eight wickets from two matches, will lead the attack on a pitch that has traditionally offered ample bounce. Ravi Bishnoi, Lucknow’s go-to man in the middle overs, will look to stem the flow of runs.
On the other hand, the Risers were outplayed in all departments against Rajasthan Royals and the return of their captain Aiden Markram should help them big time.
SRH also have a respectable bowling lineup consisting of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, speedster Umran Malik and English spinner Adil Rashid. Also, long boundaries at BRSABV Ekana Cricket Stadium here, mean the top edges off Umran Malik won’t always fly away for sixes as easily as they did against Rajasthan Royals.
LSG and SRH clashed once last season. KL Rahul (68 off 50) and Deepak Hooda (51 off 33) guided LSG to 169/7 before Avesh Khan (4/24) rattled the SRH lineup to help them win by 12 runs.