TACTICAL PREVIEW
Follow UsThis is the business end of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. Sure, there are another 20 days to go for the league stage to be over, but everyone and their grandmother would be ready with their calculator to see how their favourite team would make it to the playoffs. In that context, it would really matter a lot for both Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Mumbai Indians (MI) to know where they stand in terms of their fortune.
While Lucknow have made solid progress in the right direction after beating Chennai Super Kings (CSK) twice over the last week, the same can’t be said for Mumbai Indians, who continue to falter in important moments to stand at the penultimate position on the points table.
Things seem doomed for Mumbai at this point in time - but if we know one thing about IPL - being a giant-slayer has almost become a second nature of bottom-placed teams. Will that be the case this time too?
LSG vs MI Head-to-Head
Overall - Games 4 | LSG 3 | MI 1
At Ekanna - Games 1 | LSG 1 | MI 0
Ground Details
Compared to the level that the Indian Premier League 2024 has touched, the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow is one of the slowest-scoring grounds. The average first-innings score here at Ekana is 180/6, while the average first-innings winning score is 181/7.
Teams have opted to bat first in three games and bowl first in two games here this season, while chasing teams have won three games, and defending teams have won a couple of matches.
Pacers have picked up the majority of wickets this season – more than 70%, while spinners have maintained a better economy rate.
Weather Forecast
Don’t expect any rain during the game, with Accuweather predicting an overall chance of 5% precipitation. Dew will certainly have its role, but that might not result in run-fests like it has been in Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.
Things to watch out for
Attack with LAPs against Lucknow?
Left-arm pacers have been Lucknow’s biggest kryptonite this season and no team have lost more wickets against them than the Super Giants. Left-arm pacers have combinedly accounted for 18 Lucknow Super Giants wickets.
Quinton de Kock has been dismissed six times against the bowling type, averaging just 14 runs per dismissal. The likes of KL Rahul, Ayush Badoni, and Devdutt Padikkal are not so good either, which would prompt the Mumbai Indians management to keep their trust in Luke Wood.
Tilak to come good once again?
While the focus has been on the underperformers this season for Mumbai Indians, Tilak Varma has been really consistent in what he has done, having scored 336 runs in nine games this season, getting out on a single-digit score only once.
This season, Tilak has been equally good while chasing as well as setting totals. However, he has a better SR while batting second, but the fact that he averages over 40 either way tells you about the kind of batter he has become. Lucknow are one of the franchises that Tilak hasn’t come good against historically - so he will have a monkey on his back to release.
Probable XIs
LSG: Quinton de Kock, KL Rahul, Marcus Stoinis, Deepak Hooda, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Krunal Pandya, Matt Henry, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan, Yash Thakur, Amit Mishra (IP)
MI: Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Nehal Wadhera, Tim David, Mohammad Nabi, Piyush Chawla, Luke Wood, Jasprit Bumrah, Nuwan Thushara, Suryakumar Yadav (IP)
Telecast and Streaming Details
The match will be live on Star Sports Network and live-streamed on Jio Cinema. The game will start at 7:30 PM, with the toss happening at 7 PM.
