What pure dominance from SRH yesterday against DC. This is the destructive SRH everyone was scared of—the SRH no team wanted to bowl to. Now, they’re truly back in form, with their star batsman Abhishek Sharma toying with the bowlers and casually smashing a century, scoring 135 on his own—more than half of his team’s runs. Because of Abhishek, SRH posted a huge total of 242, and in response, Delhi could only manage 195 in their 20 overs, ultimately losing by 47 runs. SRH’s biggest issue over the last two years has been their bowling, but now it seems like those problems are sorted, and they are truly back in form. SRH now sit in third place on the points table after that big win.
RR, on the other hand, have slipped to fourth, but they have the opportunity to move up to second place if they defeat a struggling LSG tonight. LSG’s weaknesses have been exposed in their last three games, and they are currently on a three-match losing streak. In their last game, their bowling leaked runs, and their batting managed only 200 while chasing a target of 250+. However, there is no better time to bounce back than now. RR may be dangerous, but they also have their own weaknesses, as seen in their last two games.
This is shaping up to be a very good contest. Let’s look at everything you need to know for this clash.
Expected Playing 11:
LSG
- Mitchell Marsh
- Aiden Markram
- Rishabh Pant (C & WK)
- Ayush Badoni
- Nicholas Pooran
- Himmat Singh
- Mukul Choudhary
- Shahbaz Ahmed
- Mohammed Shami
- Prince Yadav
- Avesh Khan
Impact Player- Mohsin Khan
RR:
- Yashasvi Jaiswal
- Vaibhav Sooryavanshi
- Dhruv Jurel (WK)
- Riyan Parag (C)
- Shimron Hetmyer
- Donovan Ferreira
- Ravindra Jadeja
- Jofra Archer
- Ravi Bishnoi
- Nandre Burger
- Yash Raj Punja
Impact Player- Sandeep Sharma
Head to Head:
| Matches- | 6 |
| LSG Won- | 2 |
| RR Won- | 4 |
| No Result- | 0 |
Pitch and Weather Conditions:
This match will be played on a red-soil deck. The Ekana Stadium has moved away from its traditional black-soil surface to a red-soil pitch to avoid slow, low-scoring games. That’s exactly what a red-soil pitch does—it assists batters, provides better bounce and carry, and allows the ball to come onto the bat more nicely.
However, the reason we haven’t seen too many high-scoring games here is the heat factor. Lucknow is experiencing extreme heat, with temperatures reaching up to 41°C at 2 PM, gradually dropping to 39°C around 5 PM, and then to 33°C by 8 PM. These conditions are very harsh, which makes it harder to produce a high-scoring belter at this venue.
That said, it still doesn’t fully justify LSG’s low totals of 140–160. In today’s game, even 180 is often considered a below-par score. So, teams can still push a bit harder and aim for an extra 20–30 runs. It may not be easy, but there’s no shortage of talent in this league—every team has players capable of stepping up and delivering.
In The Spotlight- Rishabh Pant and Riyan Parag:
Rishabh Pant, who is arguably one of the most dominant batsmen when he’s in flow, is a definite match-winner for any team he plays for. However, he hasn’t performed well with the bat recently, which is a major concern for LSG. In four of LSG’s six matches, Pant has scored less than 15, with his only notable contributions coming against SRH and PBKS.
As mentioned earlier, LSG’s batting lineup has plenty of talent, but if that talent isn’t utilised and the batters continue to struggle in almost every match, they simply cannot compete in a league that has become heavily batting-oriented over the last few years. The one player who can lead this batting unit is the captain himself.
Rishabh Pant, when in form, is a completely different beast. He can hit you for sixes in every part of the ground—from long leg to sweeper cover, from long-off to extra cover, from deep point to third man, even behind the wicketkeeper. Name a region, and he can find it with outrageous shots. LSG need that version of Rishabh Pant right now.
On to the skipper of Rajasthan Royals, Riyan Parag. He’s been with RR since 2019, but the first time we really saw him shine was in the 2024 edition of the Tata IPL, when he had his career-best season, scoring 573 runs. He was taking apart bowlers from all teams as if he had been doing it for years. Then he followed it up with another good season in 2025, scoring close to 400 runs. Riyan Parag is a good player—he can bat, and he can win you matches. RR need that 2024 version of Riyan Parag to step up again. The man has immense skill and can turn games around. RR need their captain to speak with his bat.
This season, however, Riyan Parag has scored only 63 runs in the six matches RR have played, with a highest score of just 20. You may not be in form, but you can definitely do better than that. But RR right now don’t need small contributions from Parag—they need something big. A captain’s knock. RR’s strength this season, and also their weakness, has been their batting. We’ve seen dominance from 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, along with Jaiswal and Dhruv Jurel at times. But after those top three, the batting looks weak, with the middle order failing to capitalise on strong starts.
RR do have quality batters in the middle, but nothing is clicking for them right now. That has to change—and it has to start with the captain, Riyan Parag. If Parag fires, RR’s middle order suddenly looks a lot more stable.
Prediction:
Look, both teams are coming off tough losses—LSG were pretty much rampaged by PBKS, while RR handed the most struggling team of the season, KKR, their first win. But there’s no better time to bounce back. Both teams come into this game with something to prove, with plenty on the line. LSG will lose four on the trot if they go down again, and RR will make it three consecutive losses if they lose this one.
However, based on performances throughout the season, RR have a much better chance of winning this game. If you look at RR in their first four matches, they looked almost unstoppable. They’ve played a much higher level of cricket than LSG this year, and they have a good opportunity to regain momentum before facing an in-form Hyderabad on 25th April.
That doesn’t mean LSG don’t have a chance—they absolutely do. It may seem minimal, but it’s there. LSG have a solid and stable squad with several match-winners; they just need to find form and rediscover the momentum they had a few games ago. One positive for LSG has been their bowling attack, which has looked quite strong. If that bowling unit can expose RR’s weaknesses in their batting lineup, then LSG have a real chance of pulling off a win.
On their day, out-batting RR’s top order is extremely difficult, and it feels like it has been their day more often than not. So, LSG’s best option is to get rid of that top order early and expose the middle order, which has shown signs of collapsing under pressure in recent games. If that happens, then LSG could well turn things around—and maybe even give us another one of those Rishabh Pant Instagram reels after a win.
Good luck to both teams!
Well that’s it for today!
Will RR bounce back against LSG in Lucknow? Or will LSG use that home advantage and gain back some momentum and get that much needed win. To find out, tune into JioHotstar at 7PM IST.
Until next time!
Thank you.
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