The ongoing edition of the Legends League Cricket (LLC) has reached its climax and top four teams have made it to the playoffs. Manipal Tigers and Urbanrisers Hyderabad are set to face each other in the first qualifier with remaining four matches of the tournament set to take place at the Lalbhai Contractor Stadium in Surat. At the end of the league stage, the Tigers were on top of the points table with seven points to their name while the Hyderabad had as many points with inferior NRR compared to the table toppers.
Interestingly, the two teams were scheduled to face each other in the final league stage encounter on December 4 in Visakhapatnam but it was abandoned due to rain. The very next day, they will lock horns now in the first qualifier. Both sides will get an extra chance to make it to the final by the virtue of ending the league phase on top two positions in the pointst table. Meanwhile, here's all you need to know about Lalbhai Contractor Stadium, Surat:
Lalbhai Contractor Stadium, Surat Pitch Report
The venue is hosting its first set of matches in LLC 2023. All the playoffs matches are set to take place at Lalbhai Contractor Stadium in Surat. A total of four Women's T20I matches between India and South Africa in 2019 were played in Surat and since then, no international match has been allotted to the venue. Here are more details:
Lalbhai Contractor Stadium, Surat T20 records
Total matches - 4
Matches won batting first - 3
Matches won bowling first - 1
Average first innings score - 135
Average second innings score - 94
Highest total - 175/3 (20 ov) by SA-W vs IND-W
Lowest total - 70/10 (17.3 ov) by IND-W vs SA-W
Highest score chased - 99/5 (17.1 ov) by IND-W vs SA-W
Looking at the aforementioned details, it seems that the pitch is on the slower side and batting first could be the better option here. Having said that, the venue is hosting a significant match after four years and the pitches might have changed over the course of years. With the fans loving high scores, one shouldn't be surprised if a flat surface is dished out for this encounter.
Squads:
Manipal Tigers Squad: Kyle Coetzer, Chadwick Walton(w), Colin de Grandhomme, Amit Verma, Angelo Perera, Mohammad Kaif, Thisara Perera, Imran Khan, Praveen Gupta, Harbhajan Singh(c), Mitchell McClenaghan, Pankaj Singh, Robin Uthappa, S Badrinath, Hamilton Masakadza, Parvinder Awana, Amitoze Singh, Corey Anderson, David White, Praveen Kumar
Urbanrisers Hyderabad Squad: Dwayne Smith, Martin Guptill, Rikki Clarke, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Suresh Raina(c), Peter Trego, Asghar Afghan, Stuart Binny, Amit Paunikar(w), Pawan Suyal, Chris Mpofu, Jerome Taylor, Shadab Jakati, Tino Best, Devendra Bishoo, Chamara Kapugedera, Morne Morkel, Pragyan Ojha, Sudeep Tyagi, Yogesh Nagar, Tirumalsetti Suman, Mohnish Mishra, Milind Kumar, Shivakant Shukla
