Lucknow Super Giants VS Royal Challengers Bangalore | Match 31

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Match 31, April 19 2022, Tuesday - 07:30 PM (IST)

Lucknow Super Giants Vs Royal Challengers Bangalore

Dr DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai

Match Info
Match	LSG vs RCB, 31st Match, Indian Premier League 2022
Date	Tuesday, April 19, 2022
Time	7:30 PM
Venue	Dr DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai
Umpires	Chris Gaffaney, Nitin Pandit
Third Umpire	Jayaraman Madanagopal

 

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The overview

Just two days back, Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore became the second and third teams respectively to get to eight points on the standings. And their respective journeys in this IPL have been similar too. Both started with a loss, both registered a hat-trick of victories and then lost the subsequent game. Now, ahead of the clash at the DY Patil Stadium, both teams have the confidence of another victory to their names as they face off to end the symmetry that they've carried along so far.

RCB's primary concern will be the top order, with skipper Faf du Plessis and former captain Virat Kohli having managed only one fifty-plus score in the 12 innings between them. Du Plessis started off with an innings of 88 against Punjab Kings, which he scored at a strike rate of 154, while Kohli hit 41 not out off 29 in that game. Since then, du Plessis has only managed 66 runs in five innings, at under a run a ball. After RCB's opening game, Kohli's sequence reads: 12, 5, 48, 1, and 12, with an overall strike rate of 101.42 from these five games. While Glenn Maxwell and Dinesh Karthik have masked RCB's problem at the top, they won't mind some runs there. Meanwhile, RCB will be encouraged by the improved showing by Mohammed Siraj in the last game - an economy of 7.75 as well as two wickets - having previously gone for a lot of runs.

For LSG, KL Rahul leading from the front against MI with a ton would have pleased the management, with the three-figure score following a couple of low-scoring outings. Marcus Stoinis, having joined the team for their last two games, has looked promising, while Manish Pandey getting amongst the runs in the last game would also be a confidence booster for the team. But they will be slightly worried with their overseas paceman Dushmantha Chameera's tendency to leak runs. He has gone for 12 or more in an over in two games, and LSG will want him to tighten up.

When: Tuesday, April 19, at 19:30 IST

Where: DY Patil Stadium, Mumbai

What to expect: While teams have preferred to chase in evening games, the last two evening games here were won by teams batting first. RCB experienced that first hand when they went down to CSK while Gujarat Titans defeated Rajasthan Royals by 37 runs in the previous evening game played here. Both times, the team batting second was chasing a big total.

Team watch:

Lucknow Super Giants

Tactics & Matchups: While Dinesh Karthik has scored at a good rate against pace, with a strike rate of 248.33, he has not been as fluent against spin. His strike rate is 141.17 against slower bowlers, which dips to 75 against wrist spin, with the wicketkeeper batter having managed only 12 off 16. Rajasthan Royals held back an over from Yuzvendra Chahal while Delhi Capitals did the same with Kuldeep Yadav, whose final over was kept until the 20th. LSG could do the same with Ravi Bishnoi.

Probable XI: KL Rahul (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Manish Pandey, Deepak Hooda, Marcus Stoinis, Ayush Badoni, Krunal Pandya, Jason Holder, Dushmantha Chameera, Avesh Khan, Ravi Bishnoi

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Tactics & Matchups: LSG have been the best team in terms of using spin in the middle overs. They have bowled as many as 37 overs of spin in this stage, more than any other team, have the best economy rate (6.08) among all teams while they have also picked the most wickets (10) using spin in the middle overs. However, RCB have Maxwell, who has scored 62 runs off 28 deliveries in his three matches so far and could be the key for the side to negate LSG's spin threat.

Probable XI: Faf du Plessis (c), Anuj Rawat, Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Suyash Prabhudessai, Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Josh Hazlewood, Mohammed Siraj

Did you know?

- KL Rahul, who has scored 501 runs against RCB, averages 83.50 against them. This is the highest average for a player against an opponent in the IPL (Min. 400 runs). Jos Buttler's average of 80 against MI is the next best.

- Between them, Rahul and Quinton de Kock have scored 863 runs against RCB, with one hundred and two fifties apiece.

- Harshal Patel, who has bowled nine overs at the death, is yet to pick up a wicket at this stage. He picked up 21 wickets at the death in the previous season.

What they said:

"I have a bigger goal. I have been working really, really hard. Sometimes people don't believe it, but my aim is to do something special for the country. And this is part of that journey and I'm doing everything I can to be part of that Indian team and this is one such step in that direction" - Dinesh Karthik at the post-match presentation after his match-winning effort against DC.

Squads:

Lucknow Super Giants Squad: KL Rahul(c), Quinton de Kock(w), Manish Pandey, Marcus Stoinis, Deepak Hooda, Ayush Badoni, Krunal Pandya, Jason Holder, Dushmantha Chameera, Avesh Khan, Ravi Bishnoi, Manan Vohra, Shahbaz Nadeem, Kyle Mayers, Evin Lewis, Ankit Rajpoot, Krishnappa Gowtham, Andrew Tye, Mohsin Khan, Karan Sharma, Mayank Yadav

Royal Challengers Bangalore Squad: Faf du Plessis(c), Anuj Rawat, Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Suyash Prabhudessai, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik(w), Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Josh Hazlewood, Mohammed Siraj, Karn Sharma, David Willey, Akash Deep, Siddarth Kaul, Jason Behrendorff, Chama V Milind, Sherfane Rutherford, Finn Allen, Aneeshwar Gautam, Mahipal Lomror, Rajat Patidar

 

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It's been said before many-a-time, so much so that their fans probably would hesitate to dream big so early in the season. But if these seven games are any indication, RCB look a far more balanced side than they ever have in the recent past. The signings of Faf and Hazlewood, along with DK, has certainly plugged a lot of gaps in the side. They aren't flawless by any means, but certainly look like a formidable side at the moment. LSG, despite having a good side themselves, do have some fine-tuning to do if they are to gain consistency. Their middle order needs to come to the party more often. After that firecracker of a game yesterday, today was more of an underwhelming affair. Hopefully, we get a more competitive contest tomorrow. On that note, this is Hari Sadanandan signing off on behalf of MS Ramakrishnan, Raju Peethala and Siva. Cheers!

Faf du Plessis | RCB skipper, Player of the Match: Due to the nature of this ground, you do run a lot of 2s and towards the end, it can be tiring. I got a few 96, and a 97, so hopefully (a ton) is around the corner. We needed someone to stabilise the innings and then get going at the back end. Today, grateful that I could do it. Important that I am able to follow my blueprint of batting. If you bowled slow into the wicket to the big boundary, it never felt like you had enough power to clear that boundary. I was tired, but was still hoping that I could hit some at the end. Early in the innings, there was help for the bowlers and they did get us in trouble but we found a way. Our bowlers then stuck to the plans and when you do that on a ground like this, it's tough for the batters. At the moment, lot of teams at the top, and many in the middle, and when that happens, it's always a scramble (for playoff spots). But that's out of our control. We need to just working on our strengths and we actually can get better in a few things. Need one guy to bat through consistently, but we haven't had that frequently. DK has saved us quite a bit, hopefully today is a stepping stone in that direction. Before the last two games, it (death bowling) was a concern as we were getting hit in areas we shouldn't have been. But in the last two games, we've got hit to where we've wanted to. Harshal has been exceptional, watch out for him, he's going to be special for the rest of the season too.

Josh Hazlewood: It was good fun. The challenge at the end when the batters are coming hard. Obviously we had the big side to try and use and I thought we used it pretty well. He is the skip he got us the big score. Faf has been brilliant. Few lean games, but he took his time today and kept the scoring going along and finished with a bang. Credit to him. Just turned and tried to get back to my mark as quickly as I could, got pretty lucky on that one (smiles). I am really enjoying the bounce. Wankhede has got nice bounce but here at the DY the bounce is unreal with the new ball. If you get it right you can create opportunities in those first few overs. We have got a well rounded bowling attack and we cover all bases.

KL Rahul, LSG skipper: I think we started really well, after getting 2 wickets in the first over and then give away 50 in the powerplay, we could have done better. 180 on that pitch was 15-20 extra runs we gave away, we couldn't really squeeze in the middle and with the bat as well we needed one in the top three to go deep and the other batters to bat around him and unfortunately we couldn't do that. We have a really good team, very happy with how we are playing, yes a couple of games we could have done better. I think we started well against Rajasthan and here as well we put them under pressure but we couldn't sustain for much longer. Everyone has chipped in and everyone looks in good form and everyone scored for us. Important that one or two guys who have a good day they need to dig in and take the team through.

 

[Addicted]

RCB 181/6 (20)
LSG 163/8 (20)

Royal Challengers Bangalore won by 18 runs

PLAYER OF THE MATCH
Faf du Plessis