Hyderabad: KL Rahul-led Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) won the toss and decided to bat against Pat Cummins’ Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 57th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Wednesday.
The Lucknow-based franchise is coming into this match after conceding a 98-run loss against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Currently, LSG are holding the sixth place on the standings with 12 points. While the Sunrisers were in great form at the start of the tournament, however, they conceded three losses in their previous five matches. In their previous game, Pat Cummins-led SRH suffered a 7-wicket defeat against Mumbai Indians. They are standing in fourth place on the table with 12 points.
While speaking at the toss, Cummins accepted that it would be tough to qualify for the playoffs of the tournament. He also confirmed that Vijayakanth Viyaskanth replaced Marco Jansen in the playing eleven.
“We would have batted as well. But we have won both ways here and hence not too upset. Hard to know (a good score) as it has been pretty high scoring. It is pretty tough (to qualify for the playoffs) and you have to keep winning till the end, we have not nailed it in the last couple of games and it is time to change that. We have a couple of changes – Sanvir comes in for Agarwal and Viyaskanth makes his debut and replaces Marco,” Cummins said.
While KL Rahul said they have made a few changes in the playing eleven. He confirmed Proteas batter Quinton de kock came back in the playing squad in place of Mohsin Khan. “We will bat first. That (the pitch) plus a couple of games that have been played here. It is hard to complete forget how important this game is for both the sides, but we have played enough cricket. We will focus one thing at a time, first bat well and put the runs on the board. Playing at home becomes a difference, but we play so much cricket that we know how the conditions will be. Quinton comes in, Mohsin misses out and there are a few other changes,” Rahul said.
Lucknow Super Giants (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock, KL Rahul (Wk/C), Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya, Krishnappa Gowtham, Yash Thakur, Ravi Bishnoi, Naveen-ul-Haq.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Travis Head, Nitish Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen (Wk), Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Sanvir Singh, Pat Cummins (C), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth, T Natarajan.
