PRE MATCH ANALYSIS
Follow UsFor the longest time at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday, it looked like the Lucknow Super Giants were destined to start their IPL journey off with back-to-back losses. For KL Rahul’s side, the clash against the Super Kings began inauspiciously with a 14-run first over, and 38 overs into the contest, victory seemed a distant dream for the Super Giants, who needed 34 off the last two.
What then followed was a mind-numbing assault from LSG that almost seemed to send a message to the rest of the field: ‘count us out at your own peril’.
The post-match celebrations from the Lucknow camp suggested that it is a unit that likes the taste of victory, so there is little doubt that the young and charismatic group, led by Rahul, would now be aiming to build on the first win and get on a roll.
Sunrisers Hyderabad too, like Lucknow, are a unit young, charismatic and full of energy, but unlike their counterparts, the Orange Army are a group that’s currently bereft of confidence. They had a forgettable season-opener, being demolished by 61 runs by the Rajasthan Royals, and the way they carried themselves on the field seemed to indicate that the side is still carrying baggage from last season. Certainly, on the night, the belief was lacking.
How Kane Williamson’s side bounce back at the DY Patil stadium, then, will reveal a lot about this SRH unit’s character.
Ahead of Monday’s clash, though, one thing’s certain: having lost 12 of their last 15 IPL games, the Men in Orange need a ‘W’ way more than the newbies from Lucknow do.
Jason Holder is back for LSG - but who does he replace and where does he bat?
After playing each of the first two matches with a slightly handicapped overseas roster, LSG can finally rejoice: for the Sunrisers clash, they will have at their disposal the all-round genius of Jason Holder.
The headache for Lucknow is how and where they fit Holder into the starting XI.
For a start, Quinton de Kock and Evin Lewis are going nowhere after their exploits against Chennai. That leaves Dushmantha Chameera and Andrew Tye as the candidates that could potentially make way. It won’t be a simple choice though.
Chameera might have had an off-day against CSK (0/49 off 4), but he almost single-handedly won LSG the opening clash vs Gujarat. Leaving him out after one bad game, that too on a ground where 421 runs were scored, would be beyond harsh.
On the other hand, Andrew Tye did a fine job against CSK, even though he eventually ended up conceding at 10 an over. The double-wicket 11-run over he bowled in the 20th helped restrict CSK to a ‘par’ total.
Regardless of who makes way though, there’s another headache for LSG when Holder walks in: sorting out the batting order.
Will the management treat the West Indian as a bowling all-rounder and play him down the order, or with Ayush Badoni now having shown that he can hang with the big boys, will they move Holder higher up the order, drop Manish Pandey and bring in a bowling all-rounder like Krishnappa Gowtham?
Lots of decisions to be made. Things are bound to get even more complicated once Marcus Stoinis becomes available.
Washington Sundar could hold the key vs the LSG top-order
Washington Sundar is known for his adeptness bowling in the powerplay, but things got ugly for the off-spinner against Rajasthan as he was thwacked for 18 runs in the solitary powerplay over he bowled. For Sundar, with the ball in hand, the night kept getting worse and worse and he eventually finished with 0/47 off 3 overs.
But despite the forgettable outing in the first encounter, there is incentive for Williamson to use the offie as his trump-card up-front. Lots of incentive.
Against Chennai, Quinton de Kock blasted 31 runs in the powerplay all by himself, smashing six boundaries. Notably, however, the Super Kings did not bowl off-spin despite possessing the services of Moeen Ali.
Off-spin needs to be mentioned here because since IPL 2020, in the powerplay, de Kock has struggled immeasurably against offies, managing just 66 runs off 69 balls. It has, by some distance, been his least favorite bowling-type to face up front (min 25 balls). By deploying Sundar, who is a renowned specialist with the new ball, SRH could tame de Kock.
But not just de Kock, even Rahul has been slow against all kinds of spin in the powerplay. Since IPL 2020, the LSG skipper has struck at just 107.84 vs the spinners in overs 1-6, as compared to 121.53 against the quicker bowlers.
Bowling Sundar up-front could also help SRH make Evin Lewis wait in the shed longer, should an early wicket fall. The last thing Lucknow would want is to expose both their destructive lefties to the off-spinner. Lewis, too, does not like off-spin: the SR of 122.6 vs the offies is his lowest against any bowling type in T20 cricket, notwithstanding the phase.
Imperative for SRH bowlers to maintain discipline
A lot of things went wrong for the Sunrisers’ bowlers against Rajasthan, but in a way, they were the architects of their own downfall: in all, the SRH bowlers conceded 14 extras, including 6 wides and 4 no-balls. One of those four no-balls came in the very first over, when Bhuvneshwar Kumar overstepped to give Jos Buttler a reprieve. Ultimately, that proved to be costly.
Heading into Monday’s clash, it will be imperative for the SRH bowlers, in particular the pacers, to maintain their discipline and not gift the Lucknow batters runs.
At his disposal, Williamson already has a bowling unit that is inexperienced and has the tendency to blow hot and cold. There’s little he’ll be able to do should the bowlers not even do the bare minimum that’s expected from them: which is avoid bowling extras.
Probable XIs
LSG: KL Rahul (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Evin Lewis, Manish Pandey, Deepak Hooda, Ayush Badoni, Krunal Pandya, Jason Holder, Dushmantha Chameera, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan
SRH: Abhishek Sharma, Kane Williamson (c), Rahul Tripathi, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Aiden Markram, Abdul Samad, Washington Sundar, Romario Shepherd, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Umran Malik
