The State of Play
The Chennai Super Kings’ early-season wobbles in IPL 2024 seem to be behind them and they head to Lucknow to face the Super Giants on the back of two strong performances.
A seven-wicket triumph over the Kolkata Knight Riders on April 8 helped them overcome successive losses and they again looked strong in beating the Mumbai Indians by 20 runs last time out.
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The hero at the Wankhede was Sri Lanka paceman Matheesha Pathirana who claimed four for 28 from his four overs as the visitors successfully defended their total of 206.
It hasn’t been all good news for CSK this week, however, with confirmation New Zealand batter Devon Conway has been ruled out for the rest of the tournament due to injury. He will be replaced by England bowler Richard Gleeson.
An IPL statement read: “CSK have added Richard Gleeson to the squad for the remainder of the IPL 2024. Gleeson has represented England in six T20Is and has nine wickets against his name. Additionally, Gleeson has played 90 T20s and picked up 101 T20 wickets. He will join CSK for his reserve price of Rs 50 Lac.”
Gleeson will be given time to acclimatise before he gets set to deputise for Mustafizur Rahman, whose No-Objection Certificate from the Bangladesh Cricket Board has been extended to May 1.
CSK have won four of their first six games and sit third in the table on eight points. The Super Giants are two points and two places worse off.
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Having made a bright start, the wheels have come off in their last two games, defeats to the Delhi Capitals and the Knight Riders.
The loss to the Knight Riders was particularly emphatic, the home side cruising to an eight-wicket success with 26 balls remaining at Eden Gardens.
LSG captain KL Rahul said afterwards: “A tough day, a proper hammering. Every team in the IPL goes through a game like that. We’re not going to sit too much and think about it. Will go back, work out where we went wrong and bounce back better.
“I’m not panicking but you can’t put your feet up and hope results go your way. You have to figure out where you are going wrong. We will have a few difficult conversations. The last couple of games, we have not been able to get more than 160 and that is something to think about, and see how we can get to the 180-200 run mark.”
Welcoming with a glee!🤩🥳
Whistle Vanakkam, Richard! 🦁💛
🔗 – https://t.co/7XCuEZCm21 #WhistlePodu #Yellove pic.twitter.com/rJa1HilaQ6— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) April 18, 2024
Expected line-ups
Lucknow Super Giants: De Kock, Rahul (c, wk), Hooda, Badoni, Stoinis, Pooran, Pandya, M Khan, Bishnoi, Joseph, Thakur
Chennai Super Kings: Rahane, Ravindra, Gaikwad (c), Dube, Mitchell, Dhoni (wk), Jadeja, Thakur, Deshpande, Rahman, Pathirana
How to watch
Sky have the rights to show the IPL to UK viewers in 2024 and will broadcast every game live. Friday’s match will be shown on Sky Sports Cricket from 2.50pm BST.
In India, the games can be streamed on the Jio Cinema app and website. They are also available across the Star Sports Network.
Blue locked in for the fight vs Yellow 🔥 pic.twitter.com/SUnXfWFdkG
— Lucknow Super Giants (@LucknowIPL) April 18, 2024
Prediction
The Super Kings appear to have the edge but not necessarily due to their batters. Indeed, the visitors’ bowling line-up seems the stronger of the two. If Pathirana can maintain his fine form and Rahman can nail his cutter then the home side could be in for a difficult evening. Even more so if Ravindra Jadeja fires on what is expected to be a spin-friendly track.
The explosive Mayank Yadav is unlikely to return from an abdominal injury for LSG, heaping more pressure on a batting line-up that has struggled in recent games.
