Royals eyes turnaround against the raging Super Giants

In what has turned out already to be a blockbuster weekend in the IPL starring a handful of thrilling contests, the final battle of the calendar week will feature the Rajasthan Royals going toe-to-toe with the Lucknow Super Giants.

The Giants were off to a sloppy start as another debutant, Gujarat Titans managed to outclass them in their opening encounter. However, since then, they are still to savour defeat and are standing tall amidst teams that have been a part of this tournament for years now.

The Giants will be coming to this fixture on the back of a thrilling win against the Delhi Capitals where their batters chased down a total of 150 without any ado whatsoever. Youngster Ayush Badoni smashed the winning runs, following it up with a Virat Kohli-esque fist pump, simply adding an aggressive undertone to his rollicking start to the tournament.

The Royals were in sublime form for the first two games where they brought down the likes of Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Mumbai Indians with an imperious showdown that was based on the excellence of Yuzvendra Chahal, Sanju Samson and Jos Butler.

However, their effusive run in the tournament hit an unexpected snag as the Challengers pulled off a heroic turnaround to condemn them to their opening defeat. Both the teams will be hellbent to secure a win from this fixture as that would guarantee a spot in the pantheon of the top teams for the Giants while for the Royals it would once again get their wheels rolling.

Venue Watch:

Wankhede has always been a batter’s paradise and with the boundaries relatively smaller than the other grounds, this still remains the crux of all the high-scoring matches where the batters will have a free-flow of aggression. Both the oppositions will be coming to this fixture with a handful of heavy hitting monikers and this maybe another full-blown run-fest that can result in a 400-plus aggregate.

Squads:

Lucknow Super Giants:

KL Rahul (c & wk), Quinton de Kock (wk), Manish Pandey, Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya, Evin Lewis, Marcus Stoinis, Jason Holder, Andrew Tye, Kyle Mayers, Avesh Khan, Dushmantha Chameera, Ravi Bishnoi, Ayush Badoni, Manan Vohra, Krishnappa Gowtham, Shahbaz Nadeem, Ankit Rajpoot, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, Karan Sharma.

Rajasthan Royals:

Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler (R), Yashasvi Jaiswal (R), R Ashwin, Trent Boult, Shimron Hetmyer, Devdutt Padikkal, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal, Riyan Parag, KC Cariappa, Navdeep Saini, Obed McCoy, Arunay Singh, Kuldeep Sen, Karun Nair, Dhruv Jurel, Tejas Baroka, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubham Garhwal, James Neesham, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rassie Van Der Dussen, Daryl Mitchell

Match Details:

Rajasthan Royals vs Lucknow Super Giants

Venue: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai

Date: 10th April 2022

Time: 7:30 PM IST