Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Mumbai Indians will meet each other at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. Both the teams will play the eliminator and the winner will advance to the qualifier 2 and the other one will have to walk out.
Lucknow reached the playoffs after a nail biting win against KKR by 1 run. After KL Rahul’s injury Krunal Pandya took the responsibility and he took care of it very well.
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In place of Rahul, Quinton de Kock comes to the team and he starts scoring with a decent pace. In the first match he scores a half century, but in the last two matches his strike rate concerns. Kyle Mayers started the season very well and he was pretty consistent with the bat, but as per rules only four players can play therefore he is used as an impact player in the team. Despite this he made 361 runs in 12 matches with 4 half centuries.
Mumbai came from the much needed win against SRH by 8 wickets. Due to the win they are here to play the eliminator. Rohit Sharma after a long streak of low scores smashed his 2nd half century of the season. Team is expecting the same performance to continue in the remaining matches. Ishan Kishan on the other hand is showing consistent performance with the bat. He scored 439 runs till now. A huge promising performance is waiting for him ahead.
Marcus Stoinis, a destructive beast can easily accelerate his gears if he gets into play in the death overs. For LSG, right now he is the highest scorer and contributed 368 runs with 3 half centuries in the list. He started his innings slowly and once settled down he can easily put the ball outside the stadium. Prerak Mankad shows his deterministic innings against where he was handling one side of the team. Krunal Pandya also plays some valuable innings for the team but he is still inconsistent with the bat and mostly gets out cheaply.
Suryakumar Yadav 1st half of the season didn’t go well but in the 2nd half he is just unstoppable. He scored 511 runs with 1 century and 4 half centuries to his name. He is the only player whom MI is highly reliant on. His consistency with the bat makes him more worthy. Cameron Green scored his maiden century against SRH and played a match winning innings for the team. He is looking in tremendous form and provided 381 runs which includes one century and two half centuries. Both the players show highly consistent performance at number 3 position.
Nicholas Pooran changes the momentum against KKR performs a match winning crucial knock. He scored 58 runs in 30 balls in the last match. Till now he made 358 runs with a heavy strike rate of 173.79. His destruction in the death overs always provides some valuable runs to the team. Ayush Badoni’s small knocks added valuable runs, but he didn’t provide much to the team. Deepak Hooda’s this season is not going well and he is still in search of a great knock.
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Tim David, a great finisher for MI always helps the team in the death overs through his fireworks. He already hits 15 sixes in his contribution of 216 runs. Mumbai is again expecting his powerful hitting in the remaining matches. Nehal Wadhera only batted in 8 innings but he proved himself a great hitter in the middle overs. He has scored 214 runs till now in the season. Tilak Varma, a youngster, shows his talent of batting in any position. He proves to be a worthy asset to the team and scores 2 half centuries till now.
LSG fast bowling didn’t provide much except Mark Wood. Previously it was expected that Wood would again join the squad in the playoffs but now it is clear that he will remain absent. Naveen-ul-Haq was expensive in the last few matches and unable to grab a wicket. Yash Thakur took 10 wickets but he needs to be a little more consistent. Yudhvir Singh and Mohsin Khan also struggled a little bit in consistency.
Ravi Bishnoi is the team’s leading bowler in wicket taking. He grabbed 16 wickets till now and is 11th in the list of purple cap. Amit Mishra’s season in the first half went much better as compared to the second half. Krunal Pandya also provides some crucial wickets in between the covers.
MI bowling unit is looking a little weak as compared to their batting lineup, since they have to chase mostly 200+ runs. Jason Behrendorff took 14 wickets in the tournament till now. But his economy is 9.66 and he concedes many runs in the death overs. Akash Madhwal grabbed crucial 4 wickets against SRH. Kumar Kartikeya is also expensive in his spells.
Piyush Chawla is the most successful bowler from the side and took 20 wickets in his pockets and is currently 4th in the purple cap list. Mumbai is again expecting that he will again provide match winning spells. Also his economy is 7.81 which is best among the MI bowlers.
CLASHES (MI vs LSG):
Matches- 3
| MI | LSG | |
| WON | 0 | 3 |
| HIGHEST SCORE | 181 | 199 |
| LOWEST SCORE | 177 | 132 |
Pitch Report:
MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai will witness the Eliminator match. In the last match between CSK vs GT, it shows that in the 2nd half pitch was going slow and batsmen were facing difficulty to make their shots. Again it is expected to be the same. Bowlers will get more benefit and pacers have a better record than spinners.
Playing 11 for LSG:
Quinton de Kock (wk), Karan Sharma, Prerak Mankad, Marcus Stoinis, Krunal Pandya ©, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Naveen-ul-Haq, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan, Yash Thakur.
Playing 11 for MI:
Rohit Sharma ©, Ishan Kishan (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Nehal Wadhera, Tim David, Cameron Green, Piyush Chawla, Chris Jordan, Jason Behrendorff, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal.
Predicted Best 11 performers for the match:
Quinton de Kock, Nicholas Pooran, Ishan Kishan, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Marcus Stoinis, Krunal Pandya, Cameron Green, Piyush Chawla, Ravi Bishnoi, Akash Madhwal.