Cricket Indian Premier League Prediction

Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Lucknow Super Giants - Match Preview

🏏 10 April 2023 - 18:00 GMT +0

Match 15 of the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) will see Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) take on Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday evening. RCB are coming into this game looking to bounce back from their heavy defeat by 81 runs to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Thursday, whilst LSG beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by five wickets in their last game on Friday.

After thrashing Mumbai Indians by eight wickets with 22 balls remaining in Match 5, hopes were high in the RCB camp ahead of their clash with KKR at Eden Gardens. However, in spite of restricting six of KKR’s batters to single-figure scores, RCB were bowled out inside 18 overs for 123 when chasing 205 for victory.

At the top of the order, RCB have the experienced pair of Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis who have already contributed 199 runs to the cause across the opening two games. Skipper du Plessis is one run away from becoming the 18th player to hit 3500 IPL runs and he has increased his strike rate to 174.55 this season compared with his IPL career strike rate of 131.49. Kohli’s 103 runs have come at a strike rate of 153.73, better than his previous IPL best of 152.03 in 2016 when he amassed 973 runs at an average of 81.08.

With the ball, RCB have already had to bring in two replacement players to their squad after injuries to England’s Reece Topley and homegrown Rajat Patidar. South Africa’s Wayne Parnell and uncapped local Vijaykumar Vyshank have joined but it was Topley’s replacement in the XI for the match against KKR, David Willey, who caught the eye. The English bowling all-rounder conceded only three runs in his opening over before returning with a double-wicket maiden by dismissing Venkatesh Iyer and Mandeep Singh in successive balls.

Sri Lanka’s Wanindu Hasaranga is due to join the squad earlier on Monday but it remains to be seen if he will be fast-tracked into the team on the same day. Taking wickets has not been a problem for RCB so far (14 total wickets against Mumbai Indians and KKR) but Hasaranga’s strike rate of 13.15 from the 2022 IPL (26 wickets at an average of 16.54) could be too tempting to leave out!

LSG have won two of their first three games and are looking to replicate their record after four games from 2022 when they won three of their first four. So far in this campaign, they have beaten Delhi Capitals by 50 runs, lost to Chennai Super Kings by 12 runs and conquered Sunrisers Hyderabad by five wickets.

Going into Sunday’s double-header, only three players had scored more runs than Kyle Mayers in the 2023 IPL. However, with South Africa’s Quinton de Kock waiting in the wings, his place at the top of the order may well be under threat ahead of this match even despite scoring 83 powerplay runs at 9.39rp. Captain KL Rahul is yet to hit a half-century this season, so getting the 48 runs he needs to reach 4000 total IPL runs will need a lift in form, but has improved upon his previous innings score in his last two innings, whilst he top scored for LSG against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Mark Wood missed Friday’s win after going down with the flu but could come back into the team in this game. So far in this competition, the fast bowler has picked up eight wickets at an average of 7.87 and a strike rate of 6.00. In his absence, Krunal Pandya picked up three wickets against Sunrisers Hyderabad and took the Player of the Match Award. This will be only the third fixture between the teams with RCB winning both of the contests in 2022.

⚡ Players to watch: After averaging 38.51 across 42 international innings last year and 22.73 in the 2022 IPL, Virat Kohli is having a much more productive 2023. He is averaging 51.71 in international cricket this year (15 innings) and has been dismissed once whilst scoring 103 runs at the top of the order in the 2023 IPL.

Spinner Ravi Bishnoi has had an excellent start to this campaign with six wickets at an average of 12.50 and his dismissals coming to every 12 balls. He has picked up at least one wicket in each of his last ten IPL appearances and has gone wicketless in only one of his ten T20I appearances since making his Indian debut in February 2022. Not only has Bishnoi never dismissed Kohli (0/23 from 23), but he’s also looking for his first wicket against Faf du Plessis (0/66 from 45) and Glenn Maxwell (0/29 from 14)!

📋 Stat attack: Lucknow struck the most sixes in six of their last seven matches.

• Glenn Maxwell has now gone 11 IPL innings without hitting a half-century.
• David Willey took two wickets in an IPL match for the first time in Thursday’s defeat to KKR.
• Mohammed Siraj has bowled 47 wicketless balls to KL Rahul in the IPL. He has conceded 6x fours, 8x sixes and 91 runs in total.
• Harshal Patel has not taken more than one wicket in any of his last five IPL appearances.
• Lucknow Super Giants won the toss in both games against Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2022 but lost both matches after choosing to field first.
• Harshal Patel has dismissed Marcus Stoinis twice from 10 balls in the IPL, conceding one boundary and only nine runs.
• On the other hand, Krunal Pandya has dismissed Glenn Maxwell three times from 35 balls in the IPL.