🏏IPL 2023: Match 63 - LSG vs MI on 16/05/2023 at 7:30 PM IST 🏏

🏏IPL 2023: Match 63 - LSG vs MI at Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow on 16/05/2023 at 7:30 PM IST 🏏

Tag & Logo Credit: Sevenstreaks

Spin test awaits rampaging Mumbai Indians in Lucknow

Their batters have been ruling the roost in the IPL, but will come up against significantly tougher conditions

Will Mumbai Indians go hard against LSG's spinners?

From the high-scoring highway of Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai Indians now fly to the dusty turner of Lucknow; in terms of run rates this IPL, it's a journey from the fastest scoring ground straight to the slowest.

The most interesting aspect of that journey is that Mumbai have been chasing down one 200-plus total after another, and on Tuesday they will play on a pitch that is much slower, tougher to score on, and turns much more, and they will have to adjust to the alien conditions right when the playoff race is getting hotter. Mumbai and Lucknow Super Giants are neck and neck at third and fourth places, only separated by a point, and whoever loses on Tuesday will have to depend on other results to qualify.

How the Mumbai batters counter LSG spinners will be key. For example, Ishan Kishan has been dismissed for a combined five times in the IPL while facing 23 balls from the duo of Amit Mishra and Ravi Bishnoi. Will Mumbai still go ahead with their crash-bang approach or will they reconsider their strategy a little?

Another question for Mumbai will be whether they bring in a third spinner in the XI to accompany Piyush Chawla and Kumar Kartikeya.

Super Giants, meanwhile, don't have a great record to boast of in Lucknow. They have won just two of the five completed games on their home ground, and the last of those came more than a month ago. What bodes well for them, though, is that their batting is really coming together and the likes of Nicholas Pooran and Marcus Stoinis will want to go big again to match Mumbai's hard-hitting prowess.

Lucknow Super Giants vs Mumbai Indians Pitch Report

The pitch at Ekana Cricket Stadium is a difficult pitch to bat on as the run-scoring is not easy at this venue. The batters need to rely more on singles and doubles rather than going for the big shots, while the spinners will be able to extract turn and bounce in the middle overs.

Lucknow Super Giants vs Mumbai Indians Weather Forecast

The temperature in Lucknow on Tuesday is expected to hover between 27 to 42 degrees Celsius.

Pitch and conditions

The black-soil surface in Lucknow which assists spinners might be the only way to stop Mumbai from scoring 200, but even 150-odd is a winning score here batting first. Teams batting first and second have won three games each on this ground, which means the toss may not play a very crucial role unless there's dew later in the evening.

Lucknow vs Mumbai head to head

The two teams have met each other on two occasions, with LSG winning both matches. Hence the head-to-head record of LSG vs MI stands at 2-0

Form guide - (last five completed games, most recent first)

Lucknow Super Giants WLLWL

Mumbai Indians WWLWW

Impact Player strategy

Super Giants can sub Mishra and Ayush Badoni for each other depending on whether they bat or bowl first.

Lucknow Super Giants (probable XII): 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Kyle Mayers, 3 Krunal Pandya (capt), 4 Marcus Stoinis, 5 Nicholas Pooran, 6 Ayush Badoni, 7 Deepak Hooda, 8 Ravi Bishnoi, 9 Avesh Khan, 10 Mohsin Khan, 11 K Gowtham, 12 Amit Mishra

Mumbai could bring in offspinner Hrithik Shokeen to target LSG's left-hand batters. Their impact strategy could be to sub Tilak Varma or Suryakumar Yadav for one of the frontline bowlers.

Mumbai Indians (probable XII): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Ishan Kishan (wk), 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Tilak Varma/Vishnu Vinod, 5 Cameron Green, 6 Nehal Wadhera, 7 Tim David, 8 Chris Jordan, 9 Piyush Chawla, 10 Jason Behrendorff, 11 Kumar Kartikeya, 12 Hrithik Shokeen

Stats that matter

• Kishan has faced only eight balls from Mishra in the IPL and been dismissed on three of those
• Mishra has also dismissed Rohit the most number of times in the IPL (seven, joint with Sunil Narine), while conceding only 87 runs off 91 balls.
• Krunal Pandya has a great match-up against Chawla: 36 runs off 16 balls while getting dismissed only once
• While Stoinis has smashed 125 runs off 52 balls from Chris Jordan without being dismissed yetin all T20s, the fast bowler has fared much better against Quinton de Kock, to dismiss him four times in 33 balls while conceding 45 runs in all T20s.

In the face of more than a month of winless run at home, Lucknow Super Giants 'Adab Se Harayenge' campaign is proving slightly counter-productive, possibly even stretching its nawabi warmth a little too much for their own comfort. And as they prepare to strengthen their campaign in its most sensitive phase, they are coming up against a rampant Mumbai Indians team.

On the face of it, there seems a lot out of place for the visitors.

Jasprit Bumrah and Jofra Archer have been ruled out with their respective injuries. And there is no close substitute for them in world cricket, let alone the squad that MI has assembled.

Rohit Sharma has struggled for form, now for several seasons running.

Two promising and destructive South African batters - Dewald Brevis and Tristan Stubbs, honed last season for the challenges of IPL, are just not getting ample opportunities.

Tilak Verma, their last season's find, remains uncertain.

And yet, somehow, despite a slow start in the season, Mumbai Indians find themselves in with a chance of finishing in the top two.

It's a tricky phase for both the teams right now, and Piyush Chawla has already sounded a warning of not getting carried away with this timely momentum crossing that thin line that separates confidence from overconfidence for Mumbai Indians.

Much of MI's recent success has come at the back of their batting muscle that has plundered big runs and chased down 200-plus scores too easily for the comfort of the opposition teams. In Lucknow, the challenges would be different.

From the flat and fast tracks, they would have to adjust their game to the slow turners. They struggled in Chennai recently, and it's only going to get more complicated in LSG's home turf - which has been the lowest scoring venue by far this season.

If history counts for anything, they are yet to beat LSG in IPL. However, there are two points to salvage for the visitors. The last two times they were defeated, KL Rahul had scored centuries. He won't be around this time. Secondly, despite a plethora of spin options and good players of spin, LSG themselves haven't figured out the blueprint for sustained success - at the venue and in the tournament.

What to expect: It's been two weeks since the last complete game was played at the venue. Even though the temperature has seen a significant rise since then, it's unlikely to get any better for the batters. While questions over the quality of the pitch continue, teams would look to bat first. Even as there has been a lot of talk around the role spinners will play, pacers have been nearly as effective - picking a wicket more than spinners, striking almost more frequently at nearly the same average. On an average, the pacers concede 1 run more per over.

Team Watch:

Lucknow Super Giants:

Tactics & Matchups: Marcus Stoinis could be pushed lower down the order if Mumbai Indians play and use Chris Jordan in the death overs. Not only has Jordan failed to ever dismiss Stoinis in T20s, but has also conceded 125 runs in 52 balls against the Australian all-rounder.

Probable XII: Quinton de Kock, Kyle Mayers, Prerak Mankad, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran, Krunal Pandya, Ayush Badoni, K Gowtham, Yudhvir Charak/Yash Thakur, Ravi Bishnoi, Amit Mishra, Avesh Khan

Mumbai Indians:

Injured/Unavailable: No information has yet been given on Tilak Varma's injury. His availability for the match continues to remain unclear.

Tactics & Matchups: Nehal Wadhera has had a fair amount of success against spinners in this IPL, getting dismissed only twice in 68 balls and striking at a rate of 169.12. He could be up for a challenge against LSG's four-man spin attack in the middle overs.

Probable XII: Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Cameron Green, Suryakumar Yadav, Nehal Wadhera, Tim David, Hrithik Shokeen, Piyush Chawla, Chris Jordan, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Jason Behrendorff

Did You Know?

LSG have remained winless in their last four home games, losing three of those matches

Average first innings score in Lucknow is just 143, 25 fewer than the next lowest (Delhi).

LSG has the lowest economy rate in the death overs among all teams in IPL 2023 (9.46), while Mumbai Indians have the highest (12.08)