The Indian Premier League goes back to Lucknow for the first time since the resumption as the IPL 2025 season continues for the Lucknow Super Giants and the Sunrisers Hyderabad in what is a huge match for the home side.
The Lucknow Super Giants can still finish fourth in the table but they will need to win their last three matches and hope that the Mumbai Indians don’t win either of their last two. Sunrisers are just playing out time on their season.
Lucknow Super Giants
The Lucknow Super Giants were looking good to make the playoffs earlier in the campaign but they fizzled out a little too tamely and while they are mathematically in with a chance of reaching the top four still, you would have to say the realistic probability of it is extremely low. They can only keep winning while the possibility is still there though and will be eyeing up the first of the wins they need against a side who has been even more hit or miss than they have been.
The suspension of the season might have come at a good time for the Super Giants because they had lost three on the spin and had it carried on you would have thought that their chances of reaching the postseason would have ended pretty abruptly. The big positive for the Lucknow outfit is that they haven’t lost anyone who was important to them in the time that the competition has been dormant so they will feel confident of getting back to winning ways here.
Sunrisers Hyderabad
This has to be a really tough situation for the Sunrisers Hyderabad. They return from the break with two matches to play over the next week or so and knowing that despite the huge expectation which was on them going into the season that they can’t progress to the finals so they are just playing out time and have had to wait an extra week to be able to do it. It remains to be seen how motivated the Sunrisers are but there could be contracts on the line which might help the situation.
Sunrisers just couldn’t get a grip on this competition with the ball and they have paid the price for that accordingly. When they were on top form with the bat they were still able to win matches but even that didn’t happen often enough, which equates to why they have only won three games all season. Sunrisers haven’t lost anyone significant in terms of not returning to the competition, although Travis Head has been diagnosed with Covid which isn’t ideal.
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Key Players
Nicholas Pooran has been excellent for the Lucknow Super Giants in this competition and his six hitting potential could really come to the fore against a Sunrisers bowling attack which just hasn’t delivered the goods at all this term.
With Travis head not expected to feature in this match, Ishan Kishan might well move up to open. He was a centurion in the first game of the season and Sunrisers Hyderabad will hope that he can restart the campaign in the same fashion.
Betting
When you consider that this Sunrisers Hyderabad bowling unit hasn’t functioned at all well all season and now don’t really have a lot to play for there is every chance that the Lucknow Super Giants’ batters could really go to town here. The only front line bowler for the Sunrisers who is going at less than nine an over for the season is Jaydev Unadkat and he isn’t available for this match so I’m expecting some fireworks from the Lucknow batters here.
There hasn’t been a match played on this ground for four weeks so there can be no excuses for not having a good pitch here, especially when you consider that the home team don’t just need to win but need to improve their run rate too. That latter point makes me think that the over 7.5 Lucknow Super Giants sixes line is there to be attacked. Lucknow have hit 111 sixes this season at an average of a nudge over 10 per game. Against this bowling unit that average would have to be under threat. Lucknow walloped 11 in the reverse fixture and another eight shouldn’t be beyond them here.
Tips
Back Lucknow Super Giants – Over 7.5 sixes for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Bet365
