LSG's middle overs muddle undoes Marsh-Inglis axis

This has been a season of middle overs meltdowns for Lucknow Super Giants. Their problems have not been about starts. At least once Josh Inglis came to the setup, Mitchell Marsh and Inglis ensured those. The issue has been what follows. Once the Powerplay ends and the field spreads, LSG's innings have repeatedly lost direction, leaving them with totals that flatter to deceive.

The Jaipur game was the latest example. LSG stormed to 83/0 in the Powerplay and 149/1 after 12 overs, seemingly on course for 240-plus. Yet they could only manage 71 runs in the final eight overs, a slowdown that left 220 looking under par on a good batting surface. Rajasthan Royals chased it down, hardly breaking a sweat.

It has become a recurring pattern. Against Mumbai Indians, LSG were 123/1 after eight overs but managed only 105 in the remaining 12. MI still got there with an over to spare. At Chepauk, they raced to 112/2 in nine overs but barely crossed 200 and lost again. The problem area is specifically overs 7 to 15. Against MI, they lost 85/4 in that phase. Against CSK at Chepauk, it was 63/5. In Jaipur, they did slightly better with 82/2, but even that was one run fewer than what they had scored in the six-over Powerplay.

The contrast between their starts and middle-overs returns is stark. LSG averages 53.26 in the Powerplay, second only to Gujarat Titans' 58.23, and score at 10.24 per over, the fourth-best rate in the competition. Much of that has come from Marsh and Inglis setting the tone upfront.

But once the innings enters the middle phase, the numbers collapse. LSG are the worst-performing batting side in overs 7 to 15 across every major parameter. They have lost 40 wickets in this phase and are the only side to average under 30 while scoring at under eight an over. Their death overs returns have not helped either, with LSG sitting among the bottom three sides across most metrics there too.

LSG batting across phases

Against RR, the innings changed immediately after Nicholas Pooran fell in the 13th over. What followed was a three-over stretch where boundaries dried up and the two batters out in the middle hardly attacked. A 17-run 16th over briefly revived momentum, but it did little to turn things around. LSG scored only 38 in the final four overs, with almost half of those deliveries – 11 balls – not producing runs.

A large part of it comes down to squad construction. LSG have not fielded a specialist batter or an all-rounder at No. 8 in the starting XI even with the Impact Sub available, with Mohammed Shami batting in that position twice. Thrice this season, collapses forced them to use Shahnaz Ahmed or George Linde as Impact Player all-rounders. The trade-off weakened their bowling, and they went on to lose all three games comfortably.

Their overseas combination has added to the imbalance. In six of their 13 matches, LSG did not use all four overseas slots. They have often stacked the top order with four overseas batters, leaving uncapped Indian batters to navigate the hardest phase of the innings. It is a gamble that has rarely paid off and perhaps explains why Marsh and Rishabh Pant slipped into percentage cricket once Pooran fell in Jaipur.