All eyes on Lucknow's surface as LSG look for first win

The last time Lucknow Super Giants and Punjab Kings played against each other, almost 460 runs were scored in the match. KL Rahul and his men amassed 257 in the first innings and in response, Punjab also crossed the 200-run mark. 

It was a proper run-fest, but all this happened in Mohali. This match on March 30 is in Lucknow, which was the worst venue for batters last season. So, there will be a lot of focus on the surface when the two teams step out on Saturday.

Lucknow started the season with a 20-run defeat against Rajasthan Royals on 24 (Sunday)  and haven’t played since then. There were a couple of good individual performances but they failed to click as a unit. Meanwhile, PBKS toppled Delhi Capitals in their first game but lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru despite being in a commanding position for the majority of the game. 

LSG vs PBKS Head-to-Head

Overall - Games 3 | LSG 2 | PBKS 1

In Lucknow - Games 1 | LSG 0 | PBKS 1

Venue details

The batters struggled big time at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in IPL 2023. The scoring rate of 7.4, average of 20.6 and balls/dismissal of 16.8 were the worst amongst all venues. Only four 160-plus totals were registered in seven games. 

The surfaces were on the slower and lower side and offered a lot of assistance to spinners, who went about their business at an average of 20.4 and an economy of 6.7. The numbers for fast bowlers were also not too bad - 22.9 and 7.8 respectively.

LSG head coach Justin Langer had suggested before the season that the pitches will be better this time around. “We've done a lot of work here on the pitches. At the end of last season, they changed the soil on the pitches, and we saw some good results in the World Cup. They played a few games here. There were some high-scoring games.”

Weather forecast

We are sure to have a full game in Lucknow. The temperature is expected to be around 32-33 degrees Celsius at the start but could go down to as low as 27 at some point. The humidity will be in the range of 50-70 percent.

Things to watch out for

Dhawan’s strike rate is a concern

Punjab got 176 against Bengaluru and lost the game in the final over. Howbeit, they could have probably gotten a bit more if skipper Shikhar Dhawan hadn’t wasted 37 deliveries for his 45 runs. In the powerplay, the left-handed opener scored 21 off as many deliveries as Punjab could only get 40 runs in the first phase.

Dhawan had a strike rate of less than 120 in the 2021 and 2022 editions but got it up to 137.1 in IPL 2023. But at the same time, his average dropped to 26.5, compared to 40+ in 2021 and 2022. He has mostly struggled against spin in IPL since 2022, averaging 25.3 while striking at 123.41, compared to 49.77 and 133.68 respectively against pace. If the Lucknow pitch reacts like it did last season, Dhawan could have a tough time.

LSG’s muddled batting line-up

There was so much talk about Rahul’s batting position prior to the tournament but the LSG skipper brushed off all those opinions by coming out to open alongside Quinton de Kock in the first game. He scored 58 off 44 but as a result, Devdutt Padikkal had to bat at No.3, where he didn’t do well for Rajasthan. He was dismissed for a duck in the first game.

Ayush Badoni batted at No.4 and could only score one run. While batting in the top five, Badoni has an average of just 10.43 and a strike rate of 96 after eight innings, compared to 27.25 and 141.6 while batting at Nos. 6 and 7. Nicholas Pooran and Marcus Stoinis batted at Nos. 6 and 7 respectively against the Royals. Pooran did get 64* off 41 and has decent numbers down the order but the same can’t be said about Stoinis 

Probable XIs

LSG - KL Rahul (c & wk), Quinton de Kock, Devdutt Padikkal (IP), Ayush Badoni, Deepak Hooda, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran, Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi, Mayank Yadav / K Gowtham (IP), Mohsin Khan, Naveen-ul-Haq

PBKS - Shikhar Dhawan (c), Jonny Bairstow, Prabhsimran Singh (IP), Sam Curran, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Liam Livingstone, Shashank Singh, Harpreet Brar, Harshal Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh (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.