Two teams in the top four of the Indian Premier League will meet in the competition on Tuesday in a huge clash in the race for the playoffs in the IPL 2023 season when the Lucknow Super Giants host the Mumbai Indians.
The Super Giants sit in fourth spot heading into this match but can take a huge step towards securing a finals spot with a win here. Mumbai will guarantee their own place in the postseason with a win and will be on control of finishing second.
Lucknow Super Giants
The lucknow Super Giants kept their destiny in their own hands when they came from miles back against the Sunrisers Hyderabad to win with a bit in hand over the weekend and they know that a win here would see them take a huge step towards a top four finish, one which could be confirmed before they step out onto the park for their final match of the regular season. Defeat though would open the door to a strong chasing pack.
The problem that the Super Giants have here is that they won their first match on this ground when the pitch played fairly well but haven’t won any of the five since then. They will be hoping that in the 13 days since there was last a match on this ground that the pitches have improved and the ball comes onto the bat a bit better because we’ve seen all season that their batters struggle way too much when the ball sticks in the pitch.
Mumbai Indians
The Mumbai Indians have improved the longer this tournament has gone on but I still don’t think we have seen everything they have got to offer. Their fearsome batting is really coming to the party now, led by the incredible Suryakumar Yadav who has caught fire at just the right time. As a result of that Mumbai have moved up to third in the standings and a win here will have them slotted in second place with a match to go, potentially giving them the chance of two goes at making the final.
It will be interesting to see how the powerful Mumbai batters go on this surface if it is as sluggish as it has been in recent matches. They too are players who are better when they get the chance to hit through the line and the ball comes onto the bat. The bigger issue for Mumbai might be their lack of particularly good spin options with the ball should that be the case. That said, if any of their big hitters can come off even in tough conditions they will go well.
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Key Players
You get the feeling that if Lucknow Super Giants are going to cope with conditions then it will be an Indian player who does it with the bat which could make Prerak Mankad the main man. He played excellently in the last game and could be the glue for the bigger hitters to try and propel the score to something special.
I’m not convinced that these conditions will suit Suryakumar Yadav in terms of him showing his best stuff but he is so good and in such good form right now that it is hard to back against him doing something special once again.
Betting
This isn’t the easiest match to bet on because it has been a while since there has been a match on this ground so there is every chance that the pitch might play a bit better than it did in the last game, but in saying that enough of them have been a real struggle for the batters that you wonder if there are any pitches that can play well now. I’m probably siding with the latter but I don’t really fancy a main bet at short prices just in case.
Instead I’ll take a player bet which I think has a good chance of landing. Piyush Chawla is comfortably the leading wicket taker for the Mumbai Indians even though half of his matches are played on the pitches at the Wankhede which offer nothing for the spinner. The best thing for Chawla here is that the Lucknow middle order all need the ball to come onto the bat and to be fair to them reading mystery spin is not their forte. There are wickets to be had here and while the others might get a cheap wicket here or there with batters looking to take scoring risks against them, the four over spell of Chawla, who has taken two or more wickets in eight of his last 10 matches, could be the hardest for Lucknow to survive.
Tips
Back P.Chawla Top Mumbai Indians Bowler for a 2/10 stake at 4.00 with Betfair
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