SRH, LSG lock horns as both teams continue playoff pursuit

Both teams are coming off soul-searching defeats. While Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) were demolished in their backyard by a brutal Sunil Narine assault, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) faced something similar in Mumbai, where Suryakumar Yadav dumped them with a sizzling century. 

The similarities between them don’t stop there, either. They both head into the contest with 12 points in muddling mid-table traffic. Both have a spin unit who are struggling to find any rhythm and don’t even start on their middle-order similarities. 

But SRH might go into this clash much more confident than LSG. One of the major reasons is that they play at home, where surfaces have been belter thus far. If a similar pitch is served, all bowlers would instantly transform into spectators watching the ball fly. A win for either side could potentially threaten to dump the other out of the competition. 

SRH vs LSG Head-to-Head

Overall Games 3 | SRH 0 | LSG 3

In Hyderabad Games 1 | SRH 0 | LSG 1

Venue Details

10.3, that’s the average economy rate at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in IPL 2024. In short, it is one of the best batting conditions in the tournament thus far, which means the trend may continue. 

The average first innings score at the venue is 212, the third-best in the tournament. Even on such a good batting surface, only one team have won batting second - SRH against CSK. Essentially, this is a bat-first wicket, and teams batting first should be looking to post over 200 on board. 

Pacers are your option, with 30 wickets averaging 35.6 and an economy of 10.1 compared to 12 wickets, 45.6, and an ER of 10.5 by spinners. 

Weather Forecast

Unlike other cities, Hyderabad isn’t entirely sunny. There are predictions of scattered showers on May 8 (Wednesday). However, it won’t affect the game, given that the rain is predicted early in the day before the clash. 

Things to watch out for

Heinrich Klaasen’s dipping form

With SRH dropping Aiden Markram, much of the middle-order responsibility has been on the shoulders of both Nitish Kumar Reddy and Heinrich Klaasen. Klaasen has failed in the middle order in four of the last five clashes, with scores of 2, 20, 7 and 15. 

It isn’t just that the right-hander is failing but he isn’t even striking the ball as well as he would hope for. Klaasen’s strike rate has seen a major dip in two clashes - 50 and 95 (20 off 21 against CSK). 

Interestingly, pace-off deliveries have kept him relatively quiet, with 46 off 32 balls and two dismissals. LSG could use someone like Naveen-ul-Haq to lure Klaasen into finding the fielder. Considering all of this, will SRH lengthen their batting by including Glenn Phillips for Marco Jansen?

LSG’s bowling unit, can they step up?

Lucknow Super Giants’ (LSG) problems have been evident with the ball in hand. In the absence of Mayank Yadav, the Indian contingent has lacked that bite that they would otherwise have. In the previous clash against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), LSG conceded 235 to KKR in their backyard.

LSG’s bowling unit have picked up the second-lowest wickets in this year’s competition (61), with a bowling average of 32. Their spin unit are averaging 43.4 this year as well. The lack of middle-over wickets (23) has come to bite them. 

With Mohsin Khan’s availability yet to be confirmed, things are slowly slipping away from the franchise regarding their bowling. On a brilliant batting surface in Hyderabad, they might have to devise at least two plans to account for the batting juggernaut in SRH. 

Probable XIs

SRH: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Anmolpreet Singh/Glenn Phillips, Nitish Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Marco Jansen, Pat Cummins (c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Mayank Markande (IP)

LSG: KL Rahul (c & wk), Arshin Kulkarni (IP) Marcus Stoinis, Deepak Hooda, Nicholas Pooran, Ashton Turner, Ayush Badoni, Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Arshad Khan, Yash Thakur

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.

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