Cricket Indian Premier League Prediction

Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Lucknow Super Giants - Match Preview

🏏 13 May 2023 - 14:00 GMT +0

Sunrisers Hyderabad will enter this crucial fixture against Lucknow Super Giants with one or two games in hand for the rest of the competition and in the position to charge home from the back of the pack like a champion thoroughbred following two wins from their last three outings. Based on last year’s final standings, four consecutive wins would be required to get them the 16 points needed to sneak into the top four, but this season’s table remains so compacted that a 7-7 record could just be enough.

Abdul Samad’s glorious last-ball six to chase 215 against top-four Rajasthan should instil in them a wealth of confidence, though it’s not a match situation that Hyderabad would want to get themselves into again if they are to pull off what would be five consecutive wins by season’s end.

Rajasthan’s innings exposed an ongoing problem for the Sunrisers’ bowling attack that has taken more than five wickets just five times this year - meaning that in half of the games, an opposition’s best batters are working through the entire innings - whilst they had to chase the game from behind owing to their season-worst powerplay batting run rate of 7.70rpo and near-worst powerplay economy rate of 9.37rpo. Marco Jansen looks to be losing his impact, collecting just one 2+ wicket haul from his last five appearances, whilst T Natajaran is now averaging fewer than one wicket per innings in 2023 after his figures of 0/36.

The seasons of Mayank Agarwal and Harry Brook certainly haven’t gone to plan as they have now both been cast to the dugout with averages of 20 runs each in 2023, and neither may see a way back into the XI after Rahul Tripathi returned to form with 47 and Anmolpreet Singh, opening the batting as an Impact Player, recorded a second consecutive score in the 30s from his second appearance of the season.

Lucknow fast bowler Avesh Khan admitted the balance of their team was inadvertently rattled by the injury to regular captain KL Rahul, and it appears to be having a significant result on paper. They have not won any of their three games in his absence (L2 NR1), trying three different opening batting combinations before settling on a recall of South African Quinton de Kock at the expense of in-form fast bowler Naveen-ul-Haq. Kyle Mayers and de Kock piled on 80 runs in the first overs of what would have been an IPL record run chase against Gujarat Titans, but had almost no support from their teammates beneath them.

The Super Giants have been victorious in each of their two historical clashes with Hyderabad, but face a new challenge here as Rahul was the top scorer of the match on both occasions. Their 56-run loss to Gujarat in their previous outing took their record at an opposition venue to a still impressive 5-2, which should serve them well given the Sunrisers have lost four of their five games at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium this year.

⚡ Players to watch: After his 33-ball half-century in their breakthrough win against Rajasthan, perhaps this is the first time Hyderabad’s home fans will see runs from Abhishek Sharma this year. He has never posted a double-digit score in six home innings.

Following his overdue and successful return to the Lucknow XI, Quinton de Kock has now top-scored for the Super Giants in seven of his 16 IPL appearances since the start of 2022. Hyderabad is one city that has troubled him, however, with just 92 runs from his four innings.

📋 Stat attack: The average first innings score in Hyderabad this season is 171 (178 for teams who bat first and win).

• The pre-match outsider has won eight of Lucknow’s ten completed games this season.
• Mayank Markande has returned’ the best bowling figures (wickets followed by economy rate) in four of their last eight innings.
• No Lucknow bowler has taken more than two total powerplay wickets this season.
• Deepak Hooda averages just 15.00 from 15 IPL innings in Hyderabad (best: 32*).
• Krunal Pandya Rahul Tripathi and Aiden Markram combined in T20s: 5/32 from 37 balls.