Cricket Indian Premier League Prediction

Chennai Super Kings vs Punjab Kings - Match Preview

🏏 1 May 2023 - 18:00 GMT +0

The merry month of May gets underway with the 43rd match of this year’s edition of the IPL between the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Runs galore are expected at the Ekana Cricket Stadium stadium in Lucknow after the last two H2Hs aggregated 400+ runs each, including the 425 run-fest in the reverse H2H hosted by RCB. LSG maybe two points ahead of RCB in the league table, but it is RCB that has the wood (but not the Mark Wood!) in the overall H2H register, leading 2-1.

The wonderful vagaries in the sport of cricket have been no more epitomised than the last two matches played by the Super Giants. Last Saturday, they failed to chase down the paltry 135/6 set by Hardik Pandya’s Gujarat Titans, falling short by seven runs. Six days later, they posted the second-highest-ever total in the history of the IPL against Shikhar Dhawan’s Punjab Kings! An excellently manufactured 72 off 40 balls (five sixes) from Marcus Stoinis and healthy double-figure scores from five of the other top-order batters set the Kings 258 to win. Four wickets from seamer Yash Thakur (4/37) and four tidy overs from fellow seamer Naveen-ul-Haq (3/30) helped bowl out the Kings for 201, which on most days would not have been enough to win!

It’s all been a bit ordinary so far for the Super Giants with both bat and ball in hand, whilst there is much room for improvement to be had with the bat in the middle overs (7-16) where they have lost the most wickets of all teams bar the Delhi Capitals (29). As for the bowling attack, they could do with tightening things up in the powerplay, where they are leaking runs to the tune of 9.90rpo; only the Chennai Super Kings’ bowlers have conceded more.

As is the won't of RCB, they again lack consistency and have failed to string more than two consecutive wins together in this campaign. They come into this match being beaten by Nitish Rana’s Kolkata Knight Riders by 21 runs on Wednesday after having won their previous two. Two wickets apiece for wrist spinner Wanindu Hasaranga (2/24) and seamer Vijaykumar Vyshak (2/41) kept the opposition to 200/5 on a flat track. With three top-order batters being dismissed for less than 30 runs, a fifth half-century and his 49th in the IPL overall from Virat Kohli (54) along with a half-decent effort from Mahipal Lomror (34) couldn’t get RCB back in the mix as they fell short, losing eight wickets in their efforts.

There are few concerns in the batting discipline for Faf du Plessis’ top order having three batters - du Plessis himself (422 series runs), Kohli (333) and Glenn Maxwell (258) amongst the top 20 run scorers at the end of the weekend. However, it is a different story in the bowling department, where their attack is struggling in the middle overs by leaking 9.79rpo during what can often be a decisive stage of an inning.

⚡ Key battle: Glenn Maxwell continues to give the RCB owners excellent value for money by scoring his 258 runs at a strike rate of 186.95, helped by sending 14 balls into the ropes and 23 over them. He may get to face the 159-game veteran Amit Mishra, who has taken the fourth most wickets (170 wickets, average 23.93) in the history of this great competition that saw its 1000th match played on Sunday. This season, the evergreen spinner has aggregated figures of 4/88 and is going at just 7.33rpo. He has taken the wicket of Maxwell five times in the IPL at a cost of 16 runs each; however, Maxi is scoring against him at an SR of 195!

📋 Stat attack: The average first innings IPL score at the Ekana Stadium is 152.

• KL Rahul has registered the highest score in a game three times this season - a feat no other batter in the competition could equal after 40 games played.
• LSG strike bowler Avesh Khan has taken the scalp of RCB opener Faf du Plessis just once (avg. 48) in five encounters but has managed to restrict Faf to a strike rate of 123.07.
• Mohammed Siraj has dismissed KL Rahul just once in the T20s for figures of 1/96 from 53 balls!
• LSG is averaging 50.63 runs per powerplay, in contrast with RCB who average a league-high 57 runs.
• Kyle Mayers and Faf du Plessis were IPL 2023’s two greatest powerplay run scorers after 40 matches, with 204 runs (avg 51, 9.13rpo) and 201 runs (avg 67, 10.39rpo) respectively.