Lucknow Super Giants Squad Against Royal Challengers Bangalore: Who will survive IPL 2022 Eliminator?

Match number 72 will see Lucknow Super Giants locking horns with Royal Challengers Bangalore at the iconic Eden Gardens, Kolkata. Lucknow and Gujarat, both the newbies, did well throughout the season. However, Lucknow slipped to the eliminator towards the end of the league stage. 

Lucknow Super Giants have one of the most balanced sides with plenty of all-rounders, providing skipper KL Rahul with an option to work in different combinations. They have a strong bowling attack with a decent blend of pace and spin, making them a formidable bowling attack on varied surfaces. The opening duo of Quinton de Kock and KL Rahul has been prolific and carried a lot of loads of the middle-order in the season. And that is where their problem also lies. If the openers fail, the middle-order doesn't have control and fails to deliver in pressure situations. They have good all-rounders like Marcus Stoinis, Jason Holder, and Krunal Pandya. They need to optimise their performance with the bat. They are likely to play with the same XI with one change possible; they might get Manan Vohra in place of Ayush Badoni, who has failed to deliver in the middle-order from the last few matches. Krunal Pandya, who missed the previous game due to niggle, if not severe, should be back in the playing XI. 

On the other hand, Royal Challengers Bangalore will also be looking to do the same as Lucknow Super Giants, as they also have a reliable and robust bowling attack. The men in red have been formidable with the ball in middle overs and will be looking forward to that crucial game phase again. Powerplay batting and bowling have been a concern for them because of their inconsistency. If Mohammed Siraj makes a comeback to the team, he will need to deliver the best against Lucknow openers. Fans will be looking forward to vintage Virat Kohli after looking at his form in the previous match. Glenn Maxwell and Dinesh Karthik have been consistent with their bat in middle and end overs. They have plenty of match-winners with many expectations from the big players to deliver. They might bring Mohammed Siraj in for Siddarth Kaul. Apart from him, Harshal Patel split the webbing of his bowling hand in the previous match. If not recovered, Akash Deep might take his place.

Pitch Report

Both the teams have many spin options, considering the traditional Eden Gardens pitch to play on. However, the cloudy cover might assist pacers as well. The toss-winning captain might look to bowl first and dominate the first inning itself.

Players to watch out for

Batters: Faf du Plessis and Deepak Hooda

Faf du Plessis is his team's leading run-scorer and leads the team from the front. In the previous match against LSG, he smashed 96 off 54 to win Player of the Match. Deepak Hooda has been in great form and consistent throughout, having scored 406 runs in 14 matches at an average of 31.23. His contribution will be crucial for the team in middle-order.

All-rounders: Glenn Maxwell and Jason Holder

Since the beginning of the tournament, Maxwell has been excellent with the bat and has recently started showing wonders with the ball. He has picked five wickets in 4 matches and gathered 268 runs at an average of 29.77 in 11 games. Holder has not been able to show his best batting skills yet. With the ball, he has carried a decent strike rate of 17.7 but will look to contribute with a bat in the middle. 

Bowlers: Wanindu Hasaranga and Mohsin Khan

Hasaranga is the leading wicket-taker for RCB, having scalped 24 wickets in 14 matches with a strike rate of 12.2, whereas Mohsin Khan has taken 13 wickets in 8 games and carried an economy of 5.93. Both will be critical breakthroughs giving players for their teams.

Stats to keep an eye on

• Out of the 16 IPL matches hosted at Eden in the last four years, the toss-winning captain has opted to bowl. However, they converted only 9 of them to victories. 
• Lucknow Super Giants are yet to win a single match against the teams that have qualified for the playoffs this year. 
• Continuing to break through the 2021 season, Avesh Khan has again picked up at least five wickets in every phase of a T20 game. He's the only player in IPL history to do it twice.
• This has been the year of Dinesh Karthik. He has the best death-overs strike rate (226.37) in the IPL (min 50 balls faced). 

Bangalore successfully defended its total in their previous clash and will look forward to making it two in two against Super Giants and moving a step closer to the final? Or will Lucknow deliver a knockout punch to Bangalore? It will be an exciting game of cricket in both scenarios.