The IPL 2023 season will continue to entertain cricket fans on April 19, Wednesday at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur as Rajasthan Royals (RR) will lock horns with Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in match number 26. The Royals are ranked at the top of the table winning four out of five matches. On the other hand, the Super Giants are placed second with three wins out of five matches. The Royals are coming into the battle having won three straight matches while LSG was defeated in the last encounter by Punjab Kings.
LSG has no dearth of power in their batting, with Kyle Mayers at the top and Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran in the middle capable of crushing any opposition. A big concern for LSG is that they fail to score enough runs in the middle overs. A big positive sign for LSG is their captain KL Rahul returning to form in the last game against Punjab.
Mayers needs to think about building partnerships after the powerplay overs. LSG’s other concern is especially with Deepak Hooda struggling to get runs at the top. LSG has a good bowling attack with pacers Mark Wood and Avesh Khan. Yudhvir Singh Charak will look to carry on his good run.
Spinners Krunal Pandya and Krishnappa Gowtham are doing well in their respective roles. Ravi Bishnoi is a wily spinner with a mean googly, but bringing him too late into the attack is a big mistake. KL Rahul must think of using him in the middle instead of holding him back for the death overs.
On the other side, the Royals possess a dreadful batting line-up with the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Devdutt Padikkal, and Sanju Samson ensuring that their team has a very good start in the powerplay overs. These batters also take responsibility, adapting to the situations and scoring enough runs in the middle overs too. Shimron Hetmyer is doing his finisher role well but Riyan Parag has not been able to grab the opportunities.
RR has the best bowling attack in IPL 2023 with their pace spearhead doing damage in the powerplay overs and Sandeep Sharma also taking regular wickets. RR has quality spinners, with the trio of Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Adam Zampa making life difficult for the opposition.
The pitch in Jaipur is expected to be a good batting track and spinners might get some assistance. Captain winning the toss will look to bowl first. Considering the current form and team strength, RR is expected to win today’s game.
