Cricket Indian Premier League Prediction

Lucknow Super Giants vs Sunrisers Hyderabad - Match Preview

🏏 7 April 2023 - 18:00 GMT +0

As the 2023 IPL gets going in earnest with all ten franchises having now played at least one game, match #10 will the Lucknow Super Giants (W1, L1) locking horns with Sunrisers Hyderabad (L1) on Friday at Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow, a ground that will host only its second ever IPL match.

Lucknow (LSG) finished in a respectable fourth place in their inaugural season (2022) and hit the ground running in their opening match of this campaign when they beat the Delhi Capitals by 50 runs on home soil. However, they came down to earth with a bit of a bump two days later when losing to MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in a closely fought 12-run defeat. Three wickets apiece from wrist spinner Ravi Bishnoi (3/28) and speedster Mark Wood (3/49) couldn’t prevent the CSK batters from amassing 217/7 from their 20 overs. A second consecutive fifty from opener Kyle Mayers (53) and an 18-ball, 32-run cameo from Nicholas Pooran got their side to within 12 runs before they ran out of overs.

On a positive note, the Super Giants batting should now be strengthened by the arrival of their key batter Quinton de Kock (SR 133.91, best: 140*) from international duty. Kyle Mayers was holding the fort at the top for the meanwhile, but such is Mayers’ current form (126 runs from two innings), that he has given the selectors a ‘nice’ problem as to who will now open the innings whilst also probably forcing Marcus Stoinis to the bench. This prompted bowling coach Morne Morkel, who in a recent interview was singing the praises of pace bowler Mark Wood’s eight wickets, to state “Luckily, that’s not one for me to think about”.

Having been placed rock bottom in 2021 and a lowly eighth from ten sides in the 2022 edition, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) continue to compound the misery upon their faithful after their demoralising 72-run trouncing off the Rajasthan Royals at home on Saturday. A no-more-than-average performance from all six bowlers used by stand-in skipper Bhuveneshwar Kumar saw the Royals post 203/5 from their allotted 20 overs. The best of the bunch was T Natarajan, who was later praised by coach Brian Lara after the match for ‘how he came back after the first over (when conceding 17 runs) … it was very impressive’.

He eventually finished with 2/23 from three overs after that recovery. In their chase, the top six batters were all back in the shed with just 52 runs on the board, so it was down to number seven Fazalhaq Farooqi to spare their blushes by making an unbeaten run-a-ball 32 to give their final score of 131/8 some small degree of respectability.

Bhuvneshwar will no doubt be more than pleased to hand back the reins to elected captain and in-form batter Aiden Markram (average: 40.54) who, like de Kock, returns from representing South Africa. Markram’s first task will be to motivate his team who on their first showing were outplayed and outclassed by the Royals. There is talent in the Sunrisers outfit but they will have to put that defeat behind them if they are to get back to the winning ways that saw them lift the trophy back in 2016.

⚡ Key battle: Veteran of 114 IPL matches Mayank Agarwal (SRH) has made one hundred and 12 fifties with an overall strike rate of 134.05. He is likely to face the pace of Avesh Khan (LSG) who has been both effective and expensive so far in the first two matches, aggregating figures of 3/68 from his seven overs (9.71rpo). Avesh is yet to dismiss Mayank in the IPL after 27 deliveries that have cost him 42 runs.

📋 Stat attack: These two sides have met just once before with the Super Giants winning by 12 runs.

• Sunrisers quick T Natarajan has now returned their best bowling figures in six of their 15 games since the start of 2022.
• After their two matches in this edition of the IPL, the Super Giants have already accrued 25 sixes!
• The Sunrisers have won 81% of their home matches when losing the toss.
• Kyle Mayers has top scored for Lucknow in both of their innings this year, including 70 powerplay runs at a run rate of 10.76rpo. Last year, Quinton de Kock and KL Rahul combined for 11 top-team scores.
• Krunal Pandya has dismissed Rahul Tripathi three times in T20s at an average of just 8.67.