🏏IPL 2025 - Match 30: CSK vs LSG, 14 April 2025 @ 7:30 PM IST🏏

🏏IPL 2025 - Match 30: CSK vs LSG at Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow on14 April 2025 @ 7:30 PM IST🏏

Free-falling CSK meet high-flying LSG in clash of contrasts

While LSG have showcased batting flexibility and have backed unheralded Indian talents, CSK have stuck to a rigid template with little room for experimentation

LSG's spinners vs CSK

Mentor and mentee, both struggling captains, lead teams on opposite ends of the table - LSG vs CSK is a clash of contrasts.

Rishabh Pant has some cushion as LSG are riding a three-match winning streak, while CSK have slumped to five consecutive losses for the first time in their history. Any sense of excitement or elation at MS Dhoni returning to take over as captain seems to have dissipated following a crushing loss to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at home two nights ago.

Where LSG have showcased batting flexibility and have backed unheralded Indian talents like Digvesh Rathi, CSK, by contrast, have stuck to a rigid template with little room for experimentation.

LSG have played with intent from ball one and haven't lost a wicket in the powerplay for three straight games, while CSK continue to struggle for momentum and stability at the top. They don't have a single batter in the top 10; Rachin Ravindra tops their charts with 149 runs - the last time a team did not have a single batter score 150 runs after six games into a season was KKR in 2014.

Nicholas Pooran alone has nearly hit more sixes (31) than all of CSK combined (32). His tempo at No. 3, along with Aiden Markram's return to form and Mitchell Marsh's aggression have made LSG among pacesetters: they score at 10.3 in the powerplay as compared to CSK's 7.5, which is the season's lowest. In fact, CSK's combined strike rate of 124.23 is the worst.

In their previous game at home, against KKR, CSK's batting approach was a reflection of these struggles. They attempted to hit a boundary just 15 times in the innings as per ESPNcricinfo's data - which is by far the lowest number of attempts by a team since IPL 2023. Overall too, their attempt to hit boundaries this season stands at 38.3% of balls faced, the second-lowest this season.

In all, CSK have lost most wickets to spin this season, and LSG have two quality ones in rookie Rathi and Ravi Bishnoi, who rediscovered his form in the previous game. That'll make getting out of the mess they're in that much tougher on Monday, but they must or they risk elimination halfway in.

[Tag and Logo credit to Wildestdreams]

Stats and Trivia

• LSG have scored 60 or more in the powerplay in four of their six innings this season. Their run rate of 10 against spin is the second-best.
• Pooran's 67 sixes are the most in the IPL since 2024. His strike rate of 215 is second-best - behind Priyansh Arya - among batters with 100 or more runs this season.
• Noor Ahmad has the wood over David Miller, having dismissed him thrice in six innings. Miller manages to strike at just 54.
• LSG's economy of 10.8 in the powerplay is the second worst this season. But that's the phase CSK have been poor with the bat. Maybe this is an opportunity to capitalise.
• Khaleel Ahmed's 66 dot balls are the second-most in the powerplay this season.

In the spotlight - Rishabh Pant and R Ashwin

Rishabh Pant hasn't been able to get going in IPL 2025 - he has tallied 40 runs at a strike rate of 80 in four innings. Until the previous game, he hadn't batted long enough to read a whole lot into the strike rate aspect. But against GT, he opened - for the first time in T20s since 2016 - and struggled his way to 21 off 18 before falling to Prasidh Krishna's slower delivery. Pant's rough patch hasn't been a cause for concern as yet thanks to their other batters being in form. Can he find his gears against CSK?

R Ashwin's reunion with CSK after nearly a decade hasn't gone as planned. He's bowled his full quota in just three of the six games, doesn't have as many wickets as he'd like (five) to show. He's been expensive in the powerplay and death (conceding at 15 an over). But he has a favourable match-up against Pooran, having dismissed him thrice in eight innings while conceding at a strike rate of 93. It's in the middle overs, where he concedes at 7.7, that CSK may want to use him, even though Noor Ahmad has the most wickets by a spinner (10) in that phase this season.

Pitch and conditions

The average score batting first at Ekana Stadium so far this season is 184. The ground dimensions are among the bigger ones in the country, which will bring spinners into play. The team chasing has won six out of the 10 games here since IPL 2024.

Lucknow weather report

Lucknow’s weather for the LSG vs CSK game is expected to be warm. Temperatures are expected to reach the 29 degrees Celsius mark. Humidity levels will be around 40 per cent, according to Weather.com forecast for the city. There is hardly any chance of rain.

Pitch report for Lucknow’s Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium

The pitch at the Ekana Cricket Stadium was slow in IPL 2023, but has since favoured batters. In IPL 2025, the Ekana surface has behaved differently in each of the three matches. The first IPL game in Lucknow saw a fast-paced wicket. But the 22-yeard strip slowed down in the last two matches. Even in the previous IPL 2025 game in Lucknow, teams scored without restraint in the first 10 overs. But the free-flowing runs slowed down in the second half.

MS Dhoni's return to captaincy duties stirred a strong sense of deja vu. But for the five-time title-winning skipper, it's been far from a happy throwback. His team once again resembles a 'ship full of holes' he spoke of in 2020, the season they sunk to a second-from-bottom finish. The signs this year are even more ominous - in that 2020 season, CSK had one more win at this stage than they do now.

Fleming has confirmed what many of the CSK faithful now fear - Dhoni has no 'magic wand' to flip their season around. His side is knee-deep in a batting quicksand that needs careful attention over the next month, starting from Monday. They arrived in Lucknow on the back of a harrowing home defeat, where they played as many dot balls (61) as their opposition (KKR) needed deliveries to chase down the target. With and without Ruturaj Gaikwad, there's been a clear absence of batting intent that's left them a distant second-best in all their five defeats. CSK will hope the soul-searching they've done since the last home loss, per Fleming, will spark a course correction.

Lucknow Super Giants, meanwhile, carry none of CSK's woes into their fourth home fixture of the season. They've enjoyed three wins and just one loss at the Ekana Stadium and have the tournament's most prolific six-hitter turning out for them. Rishabh Pant's returns have been worrisome and worth sweating over, but the LSG captain has been able to breathe easy with the batting cushion of his top-three (Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh and Pooran). LSG's bowling has needed some rescuing in a couple of their wins, but even that facet of their game has slowly started to come together.

Having catapulted into the top 4 with their win over Gujarat Titans on Saturday, LSG now have the opportunity to reach for the very top by digging their heels into an out-of-sorts opposition. CSK don't have the luxury of even thinking of points-table position as yet, with only a focus on collecting a succession of points capable of saving their ship from capsizing for good.

When: LSG vs CSK, April 14, 2025, 07:30 PM IST

Where: Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium

What to expect: Even square dimensions. After hosting PBKS on a red-soil wicket and both MI and GT on black soil, LSG will play CSK on pitch No.5 of 9 - a mixed soil surface.

Half an hour into CSK's training on Sunday, a gusty windstorm sent the ground staff scrambling to cover the pitch, which remained under wraps for over an hour. But the rain stayed away, allowing a full session for the few who turned up. There is no forecast for rain on match day either.

Head-to-head: LSG 3 - 1 CSK in 5 matches with one No-Result. All four games between the two sides have been high-scoring contests.

Head to Head - Last 5 Matches

LSG won by 6 wickets (with 3 balls remaining), 24-Apr-2024

LSG won by 8 wickets (with 6 balls remaining), 20-Apr-2024

No result, 03-May-2023

CSK won by 12 runs, 04-Apr-2023

LSG won by 6 wickets (with 3 balls remaining), 01-Apr-2022

Batters to watch(Recent stats)

Nicholas Pooran, LSG

10 M • 543 Runs • 67.88 Avg • 215.47 SR

Mitchell Marsh, LSG

5 M • 265 Runs • 53 Avg • 180.27 SR

Rachin Ravindra, CSK

9 M • 238 Runs • 29.75 Avg • 136 SR

Ravindra Jadeja, CSK

10 M • 193 Runs • 27.57 Avg • 145.11 SR

Bowlers to watch(Recent stats)

Shardul Thakur, LSG

6 M • 11 Wkts • 10.38 Econ • 11.45 SR

Ravi Bishnoi, LSG

10 M • 10 Wkts • 10.57 Econ • 22.2 SR

Noor Ahmad, CSK

7 M • 12 Wkts • 8.32 Econ • 11 SR

Khaleel Ahmed, CSK

6 M • 10 Wkts • 8.91 Econ • 13.8 SR

Team Watch:

Lucknow Super Giants:

Injury/Unavailability: Mitchell Marsh missed the previous game on Saturday due to an illness to his daughter. LSG did not train on Sunday but Marsh is expected to be available for Monday's fixture.

Tactics & Matchups: With no concerns about skewed boundary dimensions in this game, LSG pacers need to go hard at Rachin Ravindra and test him with the short ball - a ploy that has worked well against him in the IPL. He's managed to hit 97 runs off 74 short-pitched deliveries while being dismissed six times to that length already in IPL 2024 and 2025 combined.

Probable XII: Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant, Ayush Badoni, David Miller, Abdul Samad, Shardul Thakur, Akash Deep, Digvesh Rathi, Avesh Khan, Ravi Bishnoi

Chennai Super Kings:

Injury/Unavailability: Fleming allayed any injury concerns around Shivam Dube from the KKR fixture, clarifying that it was just "a little bit of cramp." The left-hander was among the few batters to hit the nets on Sunday and showed no visible discomfort in his movements.

Tactics & Matchups: CSK couldn't turn to Matheesha Pathirana in the last game after a top-order collapse forced their hand to add an extra batter as the impact substitute. Unleashing the Sri Lankan in Lucknow, however, will be imperative. Pathirana has dismissed Pooran four times in 25 T20 deliveries, conceding only run-a-ball.

R Ashwin is also a viable option against Pooran, despite the West Indian's outrageous numbers against spin this season and the off-spinner's own patchy form. But it must be tempting given Ashwin has dismissed him three times in 43 deliveries in the format, conceding just 40 runs.

Probable XII: Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Rahul Tripathi, Shivam Dube, Vijay Shankar, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, Ravichandran Ashwin, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Khaleel Ahmed, Matheesha Pathirana

What They Said:

"I am feeling much better with every game. The more time I spend on the wicket I am going to feel better. We are happy to have Nicholas Pooran in our team. You want someone like that to be in our team rather than the opposition. The way he has been batting is phenomenal" - Rishabh Pant on his own form and the advantage of having Pooran in his corner.

"It's a big challenge, there's no doubt about it. So we've got to look at it in small steps and just continue to work to get better at all three facets really, and then you start competing. I think the disappointing aspect in particular the last game was the lack of competition we put up and that hurt a lot. There's certainly been a lot of internal soul searching, but also a lot of work around what we need to do" - CSK head coach Stephen Fleming on the prospect of bouncing back from five successive defeats.