Lucknow Super Giants v Royal Challengers Bangalore IPL Tips: Rahul and Bishnoi eyeing up MOM award

Lucknow Super Giants v Royal Challengers Bangalore
Wednesday 25 May, 15:00
TV: live on Sky Sports

Decent first season for LSG

Lucknow will be pleased with their work in the Group Stages but will have felt they missed out on a good opportunity to secure a Top 2 finish. They had two good chances to do so.

In their penultimate match against Top 2 rivals the Royals, Lucknow didn't put enough runs on the board and saw Rajasthan get there quite comfortably. On another day CSK could well have beaten the Royals in their final match to rob Sanju Samson's side of a runners-up spot.

Moeen Ali made a brilliant start for CSK and 190 looked on at one stage. But he got no support and in the end the Royals had just 150 to chase, although there were a couple of stumbles along the way.

Then again, Lucknow got home against KKR by the skin of their teeth in their final Group match so these things tend to even themselves out. Quinton de Kock scored an unbeaten 140, easily this year's highest individual score, and KL Rahul was also not out (68) as they posted 210.

But they came one blow away from losing the match, as KKR kept scoring boundaries despite losing regular wickets. In the end it was left to Evin Lewis with a brilliant catch and Marcus Stoinis with a perfect yorker to allow LSG to hang on and win a high-scoring match by just two runs.

Their batting in that match will have pleased the management, the bowling not so much.

So, it will be interesting to see if they play Evin Lewis again or feel they need another bowler in Dushmantha Chameera.

Lucknow's Likely XI

Rahul, de Kock, Lewis, Hooda, Stoinis, Krunal Pandya, Holder, Gowtham, Mohsin Khan, Avesh Khan, Bishnoi.

Typical RCB

The years go by, the players change and this year even the captain changed but RCB never seem to change.

Theirs was a Group Stage marked by inconsistency, poor team selection, sloppy fielding at times and so-called star players failing to perform. So nothing new, really.

Even the fact they left it late to qualify for the Playoffs, needing to beat the Group winners in their last match no less, was typical RCB.

But there have been a few positives.

The wickets and energy of Hasaranga, the economy rate of Harshal Patel, the ability of Josh Hazlewood to consistently take wickets and the late-order hitting of Dinesh Karthik caught the eye.

But again, as per usual, it's been a series of individual performances rather than team efforts that allowed them to make the Playoffs when they probably didn't deserve to.

Virat Kohli finally, finally came good with an impressive knock of 73 off 54 to anchor the chase against Gujarat. It means he'll keep his place for this match but whether it's enough to save him from the axe ahead of next season, remains to be seen.

Bangalore's Likely XI

Du Plessis, Kohli, Patidar, Maxwell, Lomror, Karthik, Ahmed, Patel, Hasaranga, Hazlewood, Kaul.

Pitch report

It seems a bit strange that after playing at the likes of Brabourne, the DY Patil and the Wankhede over the past few weeks, the Playoffs will take place at two completely different venues: the Qualifier 1 and Eliminator here at Eden Gardens in Kolkata and the Qualifier 2 and final at Ahmedabad.

We haven't had any matches at Eden Gardens in the IPL for two years. In 2020 the whole of the IPL was held in the UAE and in 2021 the first half of the season was in India (the second in the UAE again) but Kolkata wasn't one of the venues.

But what we do know from previous seasons is that 160 is about par here and that spin always play a big part so it would be no surprise if at least half of each team's overs are bowled by spinners.

But how many overs are we going to get? The forecast isn't great and the IPL rules state that if they can't play the full 40 overs on the day, they'll play as many as they can per side. Then it's a case of resorting to a Super Over and if even that isn't possible, then the side who finished higher in the table progresses, which is Lucknow.

The good news is that the drainage system here has improved over the past few years so even if there are showers, we hope to not lose too many overs, if at all.

Lucknow justified favourites

Lucknow are 1.9210/11 and you could argue that's a decent price.

They were more consistent than RCB in the Group Stages and just looked better balanced.

One particular area of strength, especially in comparison to RCB, is their opening partnership.

Rahul and de Kock at the top of the order is as good as it gets in this format, while Bangalore have rotated their opening partnership and are yet to find one they can trust.

Would-be Lucknow backers will also be glad to know that RCB lost at the Eliminator Stage (this match) in both of the past two seasons suggesting they're not good at handling the pressure of the biggest games. As if we didn't know that already.

But it's also true that RCB beat Lucknow by 18 runs in the one game they played each other this season.

And it's also true that RCB will have taken note of the fact Lucknow almost lost a game after posting well over 200 meaning their bowling isn't at its best.

Add in the possibility of overs lost to rain and this becomes increasingly tricky to call. But if we get a full game I'd certainly favour Lucknow, who should be a little shorter after what we've seen from both of them this season.

Could Stoinis have his day?

Admittedly it hasn't been the greatest of seasons for Marcus Stoinis, one of Lucknow's three pre-auction purchases.

But that's got more to do with how Lucknow have used them than his own failings. Despite being a batting all-rounder, he's bowled just seven overs in ten matches and with the bat has come in as low as eight and rarely higher than five, despite his status as one of the cleanest hitters in the game.

And he's yet to win in the top batsman market, the closest he came being a 38 in his first match (pipped by de Kock's 39) against Rajasthan when coming in at number eight.

But still.

Luckow have been guilty of a couple of batting collapses and that could open the door to Stoinis.

It's also possible that in a rain-reduced affair he's promoted up the order to give it a whack rather than running the risk of him batting in his regular position and not getting a hit at all.

11/1 is generous on a player of his ability.

Two LSG players for MOM

The last time I previewed a match I said that a couple of Rajasthan players could be good alternatives on the man-of-the-match market to the straight Royals win.

The rationale was that if you think a particular side is going to win and with the MOM almost always coming from the winning side, picking two players out of the 11 that can pick up the match gong at big prices isn't a bad strategy.

Ravi Ashwin provided us with a 11/1 winner so let's see if we can repeat the trick.
First up, KL Rahul.

He was somewhat put in the shade by de Kock's 140 last time out, the South African remarkably scoring twice as many runs in spite of the fact they both carried their bat.

But it was a knock that shows Rahul is in form, which he always seem to be anyway.

This will be the fourth season in a row where he will end in the Top 3 for most runs this season and at 7/1 he looks a solid price.

And following the idea that spin could be king here, we want Ravi Bishnoi onside as well.

12 wickets in 13 games at an economy rate of 8.22 is solid rather than spectacular but the pitch here could play into his hands and two or three wickets or two wickets with a good economy rate could make him a real contender, at 14/1.