Match particulars

Lucknow Tremendous Giants (LSG) vs Punjab Kings (PBKS)
Lucknow, 1930 IST (1400 GMT)

Massive image – Welcome house, Lucknow Tremendous Giants

The 2 groups now meet in Lucknow, a venue of low bounce and low totals final 12 months, when circumstances modified relying on the color of the soil, with the house crew preferring black to pink for many video games. A red-soil pitch is predicted on Saturday, which might imply extra bounce and tempo for the quicks and never a lot of a celebration for the spinners. If that is how the motion unfolds, there’s more likely to be stress on LSG’s tempo unit as a result of, on paper, their trio of Mohsin Khan, Naveen-ul-Haq and Yash Thakur (they are not contemplating Shamar Joseph but) pales compared to Kings’ extra all-round assault of Kagiso Rabada, Sam Curran, Arshdeep Singh and Harshal Patel.

LSG are at present positioned backside of the desk after only one sport, whereas Kings have received out out of two, and the comforting issue LSG will financial institution on is house benefit this IPL – house groups have received every of the primary 9 video games of the match.

LSG’s new head coach Justin Langer stated he was glad to get his crew’s opening sport out of the best way, “get a little bit of rust out”, and is raring to money in on home-ground benefit.

Group information – No Shamar Joseph but, Kings probably unchanged

LSG’s tempo shares aren’t a match for Kings’ on paper, however they are going to wait a bit of longer to unleash Shamar Joseph onto this league, Langer confirmed on the eve of the match. “I really like his spirit and athleticism however he is nonetheless very younger,” Langer stated of Joseph. “He is pushing laborious for choice however I do not assume he’ll play tomorrow although.” Langer additional stated LSG have historically performed three abroad batters and one overseas bowler which has introduced them success, however they are going to resolve a ultimate XI on Saturday.

Kings went unchanged for his or her second sport and are more likely to proceed that, until there’s a niggle.

Affect Participant technique

Lucknow Tremendous Giants

After bowling first of their first sport, LSG had substituted specialist bowler Yash Thakur with spin-bowling allrounder Deepak Hooda within the chase. If the pitch on Saturday aids spin greater than tempo, they might use Hooda via the sport and use a specialist batter, reminiscent of Ayush Badoni or Padikkal, within the influence position.

Possible XII: 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 KL Rahul (capt), 3 Devdutt Padikkal, 4 Ayush Badoni, 5 Deepak Hooda, 6 Nicholas Pooran, 7 Marcus Stoinis, 8 Krunal Pandya, 9 Ravi Bishnoi, 10 Mohsin Khan, 11 Naveen-ul-Haq, 12 Yash Thakur/Shivam Mavi

Punjab Kings

In each video games to this point, Kings have used Prabhsimran Singh and Arshdeep Singh as their influence subs relying on the toss consequence, and that’s more likely to proceed.

Possible XII: 1 Shikhar Dhawan (capt), 2 Jonny Bairstow, 3 Prabhsimran Singh, 4 Liam Livingstone, 5 Sam Curran, 6 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 7 Shashank Singh, 8 Harpreet Brar, 9 Harshal Patel, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Rahul Chahar, 12 Arshdeep Singh

Stats that matter –

Pitch and circumstances – pink soil or black?

The Ekana Stadium was the worst floor for batters in IPL 2023. The common scoring charge of 6.93 was the bottom among the many 10 venues that hosted no less than 5 matches, the balls-per-boundary ratio of seven.7 was the best, and the bounce was usually low particularly on black-soil surfaces. How these two high-octane batting line-ups play right here can be attention-grabbing to look at.

Quotes

“I am not going to lose one second’s sleep over KL Rahul.”
Justin Langer backs his captain regardless of the fixed scrutiny over his strike charge

“Talking on the Ekana pitch, I’m conscious of how the bounce and dimensions work on this floor. So my process is to tell the gamers on that are the great pockets the place we are able to bowl on to get the utmost from the pitch.”
PBKS spin-bowling coach Sunil Joshi is accustomed to the Lucknow floor as a result of he coaches the Uttar Pradesh crew in home cricket