Must-win or bust: LSG on the brink and running out of time

Must-win or bust: LSG on the brink and running out of time

Lucknow Super Giants' qualification hopes hang by a thread. If they lose to Sunrisers Hyderabad, they're out of contention. If they win, they're still nowhere close – such has been the story of their season. Even if LSG manage to win all three of their remaining matches, they'll only get to 16 points. And with a net run rate of -0.469, there's still too much left to chance.

Two of their retained players haven't had the best of seasons. Ravi Bishnoi was left out of LSG's last match after underwhelming returns (nine wickets across 10 games at an average of 41.67 and an economy of 10.42) whereas Mayank Yadav has been ruled out of the season with a back injury, looking a shadow of his fiery self since returning to the side midway into the tournament.

LSG will take heart from having beaten SRH earlier this season. That win came without Mayank and Bishnoi at his best. Many expected the inexperienced bowling attack to be steamrolled in Hyderabad but instead, they showed the world how to counter SRH's batting firepower and intent, particularly on a surface that played to the home team's strengths.

SRH's season is done and dusted. It was somewhat ironic that they bowed out of contention in a rained-off match, just after producing their best bowling performance of the season. The return of their fast-bowling captain Pat Cummins after the IPL's temporary suspension, should lift the spirits of the franchise. Especially with Cummins set to lead Australia in a World Test Championship final barely two weeks after LSG's final league fixture.

Even though qualification is off the table, there's still plenty to play for SRH, a team that hasn't quite lived up to the promise of their season opener. There have been lessons along the way, and it'll be interesting to see how they put those into practice in the games that remain, starting with Lucknow.

When: Match 61, IPL 2025, on May 19, at 07:30 PM LOCAL

Where: Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow

What to expect: This will be the first game at the Ekana in IPL 2025 in almost a month. It's sweltering hot in Lucknow, with afternoon and evening temperatures hovering around 40 degrees Celsius. Conditions will test the players physically, especially at a venue where sixes haven't come easy. It's one of the biggest grounds in India, and the pitches have generally produced middling totals, with just one 200-plus score in 10 innings this season. It could be more of the same this time around.

Head to head: LSG 4-1 SRH. Lucknow won the reverse fixture in Hyderabad on the back of a four-fer from their replacement player, Shardul Thakur.

Probable XII:

• LSG: Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Abdul Samad, Ayush Badoni, David Miller, Akash Singh/Ravi Bishnoi, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Avesh Khan, Akash Deep/Shardul Thakur, Prince Yadav
• SRH: Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan(w), Travis Head/Kamindu Mendis, Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Sachin Baby, Abhinav Manohar, Pat Cummins(c), Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat, Zeeshan Ansari, Eshan Malinga

Key Stats:

• Rishabh Pant has the lowest strike-rate (99.22) for anyone who has batted at least 100 balls in this IPL
• LSG and SRH are the two most expensive bowling units in the PowerPlay this season, conceding at 10.5 and 10.1 respectively.
• The 10 wickets taken by SRH's spinners are the least by any team's spinners in this season.