The State of Play
Sunrisers Hyderabad and Lucknow Super Giants meet in a crucial IPL 2024 clash tomorrow with the race for the play-offs heating up.
Both sides have 12 points from 11 games and sit in a mid-table log-jam with both knowing a strong end to the season will be enough to secure a top-four spot.
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Neither are in particularly good form, though. Sunrisers have lost three of their last four while the Super Giants have won one of their last three.
Sunrisers’ challenge has stalled due to their much-vaunted batting line-up failing to fire in recent games. They’ve made 200 just once over that four-match span with only Australian Travis Head showing any kind of consistent form.
His opening partner Abhishek Sharma is in a rut while other matchwinners, such as Heinrich Klaasen and Nitish Reddy, have been inconsistent throughout.
Captain Pat Cummins is hoping the “fireworks” of previous games in this year’s competition – Sunrisers have hit more than 250 on three occasions – can be repeated in the run-in.
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Ahead of the game against Lucknow, Cummins said: “We like playing at home and we’ve done well there so far. Looking forward to what’s ahead of us. Hopefully a few more fireworks.”
Lucknow come into this match on the back of a 98-run pasting by the Kolkata Knight Riders. They were bowled out for just 137 in reply to KKR’s 235.
LSG captain KL Rahul admitted “it was a poor performance with both bat and ball.”
The visitors continue to be without tearaway quick Mayank Yadav and left-arm paceman Mohsin Khan.
Back home and ready to bounce back in front of our #OrangeArmy 👊🧡 pic.twitter.com/CbmrRlA1bx
— SunRisers Hyderabad (@SunRisers) May 7, 2024
Expected Line-ups
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Head, Sharma, Agarwal, Reddy, Klaasen (wk), Jansen, Ahmed, Cummins (c), Singh, Kumar, Natarajan
Lucknow Super Giants: KL Rahul (c, wk), Kulkarni, Stoinis, Hooda, Pooran, Badoni, Turner, Pandya, Singh, Bishnoi, Naveen
How to watch
Sky have the rights to show the IPL to UK viewers in 2024 and will broadcast every game live. Wednesday’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.
𝙆𝙋 𝙫𝙨 𝙎𝙍𝙃 has always been special 💪🔥 pic.twitter.com/mGubtGxyEm
— Lucknow Super Giants (@LucknowIPL) May 7, 2024
Prediction
Lucknow were so poor in their last outing, they will be wanting a reaction to get their play-off charge back on track.
Sunrisers have been stuttering for a while. And while that will be a major concern for captain Cummins, he is experienced enough to know form is temporary. There is too much quality in that Sunrisers line-up for them not to fire again soon.
And with home advantage and a noisy crowd behind them, we expect Head and Co to regain their mojo and fire Sunrisers to a much-needed victory.
