LSG in high-scoring Delhi for first of two must-win games

Match details

Delhi Capitals (6th place) vs Lucknow Super Giants (7th place)
Delhi, 7.30pm IST (2pm GMT)

Big picture: LSG, DC or neither?

Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants are in a tough spot ahead of their game on Tuesday. DC need to win big, and then hope an improbable sequence of other results falls in their favour to have a shot at finishing in the top four. It’s unlikely to happen, and their last league game is a chance to finish a disappointing campaign on a high at home.

LSG have a better chance than DC of making the playoffs, but the huge defeats in their previous two games have severely damaged their net run rate and their prospects. They need a win in Delhi, and another in Mumbai to get to 16 points, and then hope Chennai Super Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad don’t make it to 16 as well because both those teams have far superior net run rates. Fourteen points will not be enough for LSG.

The challenge for LSG in Delhi is two fold. They are the second slowest batting side this season, scoring at 8.35 runs per over, so their batters will have to level up at the venue with the highest run rate (11.06) this season. LSG’s bowlers have also taken the fewest wickets in IPL 2024 – 57 in 12 innings, which is less than six per game on average – and they might have to do better than that to rein in Jake Fraser-Mcgurk and co.

Previous meeting

Kuldeep Yadav took 3 for 20 in Lucknow, dismissing KL Rahul, Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran, as LSG were restricted to 167 for 7. The IPL then had its first sighting of Fraser-McGurk, who top-scored with 55 off 35 balls in DC’s six-wicket victory.

Team news and Impact Player strategy

Delhi Capitals

Rishabh Pant is available for selection after he was suspended for DC’s previous game against RCB for a third slow over-rate offence. He is likely to replace Kumar Kushagra in the XI. DC had started with three foreign players against RCB, with David Warner coming in as Impact Player for the chase. He is likely to start if they bat first against LSG.

Probable XII: 1 David Warner, 2 Jake Fraser-McGurk, 3 Abishek Porel, 4 Rishabh Pant (capt & wk), 5 Shai Hope, 6 Tristan Stubbs, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Rasikh Salam, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Mukesh Kumar, 11 Ishant Sharma, 12 Khaleel Ahmed

Lucknow Super Giants

LSG didn’t use an Impact Player in their previous game against SRH because they managed to stop the collapse when batting first, before getting blown away in 9.4 overs in the chase. While chasing in the two matches before that, they brought in Arshin Kulkarni to open and subbed out Mayank Yadav and Yash Thakur respectively. Mohsin Khan is fit again after hitting his head on the turf against KKR and missing the next game against SRH and he could come in for Yudhvir Singh

Probable XII: 1 KL Rahul (capt % wk), 2 Arshin Kulkarni, 3 Marcus Stoinis, 4 Deepak Hooda, 5 Nicholas Pooran, 6 Ayush Badoni, 7 Ashton Turner, 8 Krunal Pandya, 9 Mohsin Khan, 10 Ravi Bishnoi, 11 Naveen-ul-Haq, 12 Yash Thakur

In the spotlight: Fraser-McGurk and Rahul

Jake Fraser-McGurk has 330 runs this season, 296 of which have come in boundaries. His boundary percentage of 89.7 is the highest among batters with at least 300 runs in any T20 series across the world. He’s hit 33 boundaries in his first ten balls across eight innings, giving him the highest first-ten-ball strike rate (228) among batters with at least seven innings in an IPL season. And with a cut-off of 75 runs each against fast bowlers and spinners, he’s the only batter to strike at 200-plus against both type of bowlers in any IPL season. Fraser-McGurk has made a sensational entrance in the IPL, and he will want to end the season in style too.

KL Rahul could do with some of that McGurk magic. He’s LSG’s top-scorer this season with 460 runs but his average of 38.33 is his lowest in a full season since 2015, and his strike rate of 136 pales in comparison to the pyrotechnics from several other openers in IPL 2024. The lingering image of Rahul after the drubbing against SRH five days ago was the talking to he received from LSG owner Sanjiv Goenka. Rahul led LSG to the playoffs in their first two IPL seasons, but will have to turn his form around to give them the best chance of finishing in the top four once again.

Stats that matter

Pant has a strike rate of 184 against the left-arm spin of Krunal Pandya (70 runs off 38 balls) with three dismissals in ten innings. His T20 record isn’t as good against the legspinner Ravi Bishnoi: 54 runs off 47 balls with two dismissals in six innings.

Axar Patel could be an effective option against Rahul and Stoinis. Rahul has only 30 runs off 39 balls against Axar with two dismissals, while Stoinis’ record is worse: 22 off 38 balls with two dismissals as well. However, DC will want to keep Axar away from Pooran, who scores at a strike rate of 330.76 (43 off 13 balls) with no dismissals against him.

Pitch and conditions

In the four matches at the Arun Jaitley Stadium so far, the team batting first has won after scoring 266 for 7, 224 for 4, 257 for 4 and 221 for 8, while the chasing team has responded with 199, 220 for 8, 247 for 9 and 201 for 8. It’s a high-scoring venue with short straight boundaries and shorter square boundaries. The forecast is for a warm evening with temperatures in the mid 30C range.

Quotes

“We would have liked to have been just a bit more consistent. But in saying that, we just need to deal with the fact of where we are now… If we, as a team, want to win the IPL, [we] probably need to win five in a row, which RCB have just done. So that’s proof that for us; it’s absolutely possible. But that’s just the big picture. We need to get over the line tomorrow before we can have any other aspirations.”
LSG assistant coach Lance Klusener