IPL 2023: Five key points to the game between Lucknow and Hyderabad

Former champion Sunrisers Hyderabad will be hoping to open its account in the 2023 IPL when it takes on Lucknow Super Giants at the latter’s home ground on Friday evening.

Sunrisers, which won the title in 2016, suffered a bruising 72-run defeat to Rajasthan Royals in its opening game and will need to quickly put a line through that result.

On the contrary, Super Giants got its campaign off to a rousing start when outplaying Delhi Capitals by 50 runs but then took one on the chin when going down to Chennai Super Kings in a hard-fought match in which it lost by 12 runs.

Both teams have met just once previously with Lucknow winning that game.

Their rivalry is still developing so here are five key points to the 10th match of this year’s tournament.

Look forward, not back

Sunrisers Hyderabad has been a consistent performer in the IPL although its recent form is not as good as it would expect it to be.

During the last IPL, it enjoyed a purple patch when it won five matches on the bounce against Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Punjab, and eventual champion Gujarat Titans but then lost six out of seven matches, although the lone win then came against five-time champion Mumbai.

The team can take heart from the wins it posted and play positive cricket in its first away game.

Use batting depth

Sunrisers is one of the teams which can boast of a batting line-up that runs deep right up to all-rounders Washington Sundar and Marco Jansen.

At the top, Mayank Agarwal, Abhishek Sharma, and Rahul Tripathi are serious batters, while the middle-order has strength in Aiden Markram, Harry Brook and Glenn Phillips, and Heinrich Klaasen. There is a lot of variety in the bunch and each one of them is capable of changing the course of a match.

Lessons learned

Lucknow will have learned a couple of things from its 12-run defeat to Chennai and must show more discipline against spinners, as Moeen Ali posed a lot of problems during his four-wicket spell.

The bowlers also allowed openers Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway to bat a lot more freely than they should have which enabled them to post a crucial century partnership.

With a better game plan, it can get back in the win column and build on its promising performance from last season where it reached the playoffs.

Strength in all-rounders

In Deepak Hooda, Marcus Stoinis and Krunal Pandya, Lucknow has three all-rounders who can be very effective if they hit top gear, which, however, they have not so far. But these are early days and although Pandya has not shown much strong form since late last year, it is only a matter of time before he clicks.

Australia’s Stoinis seems to have recovered well from injury and looks to be getting back into nick which much please the team management.

Prolific batting line-up

Quinton de Kock and KL Rahul were one of the most devastating opening combinations in last year’s tournament where they amassed over 1120 runs, while Nicholas Pooran, who was bought for a staggering Rs. 16 crores (Dh 7.1 million) is one of Twenty20 cricket’s most formidable batsmen, and a definitive game changer.

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