Lucknow Super Giants will host Delhi Capitals in Match 26 of the 2024 Indian Premier League season at the Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium on Tuesday.
LSG arrives into the contest with a potential chance of going to the summit of the league standings while the Rishabh Pant-led side would be hoping to get off the base of the table after four losses from their first five fixtures in IPL 2024.
What has happened so far?
LSG opened their campaign against Rajasthan Royals and Justin Langer lost his first match as head coach in the IPL as a target of 194 runs turned out to be too steep for KL Rahul’s men.
Playing their first match at home, Nicholas Pooran donned the captaincy armband and led LSG to a score of 199 runs against Punjab Kings and bagged their first win of the season by a margin of 21 runs.
Since then, LSG has defended targets on two more occasions against Royal Challengers Bangalore and IPL 2022 Champions Gujarat Titans by margins of 28 runs and 33 runs respectively.
On the other hand, Delhi Capitals opened their campaign with two successive losses against PBKS and RR before defeating defending champions Chennai Super Kings in their adopted home ground in Vizag.
DC went on to lose two more matches on the bounce against Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians conceding more than 500 runs in the two fixtures. While KKR handed them a 106-run defeat after putting a total of 272 runs on the board in the first innings, the Hardik Pandya-led side could only win by 29 runs after scoring 234 runs.
Head to Head Record
The Super Giants have dominated DC with three wins in three fixtures under the tutelage of Gautam Gambhir in the last couple of years.
The last fixture between the two sides served as a season opener for both sides in IPL 2023 and Kyle Mayers’ brilliant innings of 73 runs off 38 balls complimented by Pooran and Ayush Badoni’s quick knocks helped the hosts defeat the Capitals by 50 runs in Lucknow.
In IPL 2022, LSG completed the double over the Pant-led side as Quinton de Kock and KL Rahul took turns to power their side to wins at the DY Patil Stadium and the Wankhede Stadium respectively.
Key Players
Ravi Bishnoi (Lucknow Super Giants): Back in Lucknow, Ravi Bishnoi would be expected to deliver the goods on a spin-friendly track. With the BCCI selection committee expected to announce the squad for the 2024 ICC T20 World Cup by 1st May, time is running out for the youngster to prove his credentials of bowling against world-class batters.
The wrist-spinner proved to be expensive in the first three fixtures bowling at an economy rate of 9.6 while picking up only a solitary wicket in three matches. Bishnoi bounced back with a brilliant two-over spell against the Titans giving away only 8 runs while taking the prized wicket of Kane Williamson.
David Warner would be expected to shoulder the responsibility in the DC top-order
David Warner (Delhi Capitals): David Warner’s responsibilities will further increase in the upcoming fixture as the Australian batter is a strong force to be reckoned with against spin bowlers.
Warner currently has 158 runs in 5 matches at a strike rate of 142.34 with the southpaw scoring a crucial half-century in the win against CSK. The veteran opening batter is the only certainty in the DC top order with the revolving door offering opportunities to many youngsters but they have failed to grab the chances on offer.
Team News from Both Camps
The Justin Langer-coached side is thin on bowling resources after losing Mark Wood, David Willey, and Shivam Mavi as the trio was ruled out of the ongoing IPL season. Mohsin Khan was also ruled out of the previous fixture on the weekend due to a back strain by LSG bowling coach Morne Morkel and the upcoming fixture against DC might come too soon for Khan.
Mayank Yadav was the shining light in LSG’s first two wins of the season exciting the fans with his raw face but the fast bowler is a major doubt for both fixtures this week by LSG CEO Vindo Bisht.
He said,
“Mayank felt soreness in the lower abdominal area and as a precaution, we are managing his workload over the next week. We hope to see him soon in the field.”
Like the Super Giants, the Delhi-based franchise has been missing a few of their key players with Kuldeep Yadav and Mukesh Kumar missing the last few fixtures due to a groin injury and a hamstring issue respectively. DC bowling coach Pravin Amre also revealed that Mitchell Marsh’s availability for the remainder of the season is under the cloud of doubts.
He said,
“A few of our players are injured, and the worrying sign is Mitch Marsh. He has gone for a scan and the physios will give us a report in a week’s time. Then we will come to know what the exact situation is. Whether he can play or not depends on the reports.”
The Capitals have also announced that South African fast bowler Lizaad Williams has replaced Harry Brook in their squad and the 30-year old might be in line to make his debut against LSG.
Predicted XIs
Lucknow Super Giants: KL Rahul ©, Quinton de Kock (wk), Ayush Badoni, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran, Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi, Manimaran Siddharth, Naveen-ul-Haq, Yash Thakur, Mohsin Khan
Delhi Capitals: Prithvi Shaw, David Warner, Yash Dhull, Rishabh Pant © (wk), Tristan Stubbs, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Axar Patel, Abhishek Porel, Ishant Sharma, Lizaad Williams, Khaleel Ahmed
Prediction
Lucknow Super Giants are flying high despite their injury issues and the hosts would like to grab another win to go to the top of the league standings after Gujarat Titans defeated table-toppers Rajasthan Royals in a last-ball thriller.
On the other hand, the Capitals would like to put the talk of unavailable players aside and might be boosted by two potential debutants in Williams and Jake Fraser-McGurk after the Australian power-hitter completed a brilliant catch as a substitute fielder against Mumbai Indians.