Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will lock horns in the 54th match of the ongoing Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024). The match will be played at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow.
Both teams are close to qualifying for the playoffs and will want to increase their chances with a win tonight. With seven wins from ten games, KKR are currently in second place in the points table and have all but secured their place in the next round.
The two-time IPL champions defeated Mumbai Indians by 24 runs in their last game and will look to make the most of the momentum. LSG, on the other hand, is in third place with six wins and four defeats so far. In their last game, LSG defeated Mumbai Indians by four wickets and will be hoping for another crucial win tonight.
This is the second meeting between the two teams this season. In the first match between them, KKR emerged victorious by an impressive margin of eight wickets. After restricting LSG to 161/7, KKR had managed to bring down the total in less than 16 overs by losing just two wickets.
LSG vs KKR: Impact players
LSG won the toss and elected to bowl first. Speaking at the toss, LSG captain KL Rahul said: “We will bowl first. I’m not the best reader of a wicket, we just like to chase. The good thing is that we were able to adapt very well and quickly to the conditions, there were some brilliant individual performances.” Well, there has been a lot of talk about strike rate and T20 cricket has changed a lot in the last few years.
KKR captain Shreyas Iyer said: “We would have bowled too. Defending that total with five bowlers in the last game gives us a lot of confidence. There is a lot of self-confidence in the team. We play with the same team.”
“Hopefully we can continue with the same form. He was optimistic from the first game and just couldn’t execute. He (Venkatesh Iyer) got a great character and was happy with the way he executed. It is important to remain able to present,” he added.
Impact players nominated by LSG and KKR:
VSG: Arshin Kulkarni, Manimaran Siddharth, Krishnappa Gowtham, Yudhvir Singh, Devdutt Padikkal
KKR: Anukul Roy, Manish Pandey, Srikar Bharat, Sherfane Rutherford, Vaibhav Arora
Ending XIs:
VSG: KL Rahul(f/c), Marcus Stoinis, Deepak Hooda, Nicholas Pooran, Ashton Turner, Ayush Badoni, Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Mohsin Khan, Yash Thakur
KKR: Philip Salt(f), Sunil Narine, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Shreyas Iyer(c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana