Team LSG celebrating a wicket (file photo)
Kolkata Knight Riders need to win with a big margin in their do-or-die match against Lucknow Super Giants on Wednesday. On the other hand, Lucknow Super Giants will play to lock their position in the top four.
KKR rank sixth on the points table by winning 12 points in 13 matches. To stay alive in the playoff race, the Knight Riders will not only have to win their last match but also hope the other teams' games go their way.
LSG are already positioned in the top three with 16 points but will want to lock their place at the top by getting two more points.
For Shreyas Iyer-led team, Andre Russell has performed brilliantly with the ball as well as bat.
Ajinkya Rahane and Pat Cummins were ruled out of the remainder of the IPL due to injuries. Venkatesh Iyer has failed to fulfil his team's expectations from him.
Nitish Rana has not been consistent while Iyer has failed to perform in the last three games.
The trio of Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee and Sunil Narine have crucial roles to play for the team.
LSG, on the other hand, had two successive defeats.
The main concern for LSG is their poor batting show in the powerplay and their dependency on their skipper KL Rahul who has been off-coloured in the last three games.
Quinton de Kock who has scored three half-centuries will need to take more responsibility. Krunal Pandya also needs to share the burden.
LSG will also look to use all-rounders Marcus Stoinis better.
Bowling has proved to be the weak link for LSG, though the likes of Avesh Khan and Jason Holder have delivered with 17 and 14 wickets so far. Mohsin Khan was taken to the cleaners in the last game.
Teams:
Lucknow Super Giants: KL Rahul, Manan Vohra, Evin Lewis, Manish Pandey, Quinton De Kock, Ravi Bishnoi, Dushmantha Chameera, Mohsin Khan, Mayank Yadav, Ankit Rajpoot, Avesh Khan, Andrew Tye, Marcus Stoinis, Kyle Mayers, Karan Sharma, Krishnappa Gowtham, Ayush Badoni, Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya. Jason Holder.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Aaron Finch, Abhijeet Tomar, Ajinkya Rahane, Baba Indrajith, Nitish Rana, Pratham Singh, Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Ashok Sharma, Pat Cummins, Rasikh Dar, Shivam Mavi, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Aman Khan, Andre Russell, Anukul Roy, Chamika Karunaratne, Mohammed Nabi, Ramesh Kumar, Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Sam Billings, Sheldon Jackson.
The match starts at 7:30 PM.
(Inputs by PTI)
