Delhi Capitals likely to face a spin test in Lucknow – T20 IPL 2024

Big picture – Spin to win again?

Lucknow Super Giants started the season with a defeat, but have won three on the bounce since. Their most recent victory came against Gujarat Titans on a spin-friendly pitch at home. LSG’s spinners were central to that result – Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi and M Siddharth combined for figures of 10-0-48-4 to help defend 163 – and they could consider laying out a similar surface on Friday, especially against the visiting Delhi Capitals.

Batting has been a struggle for the Capitals this season. Their collective average of 23.35 is the lowest among all teams, and they have had to deal with the absence of key players like Kuldeep Yadav and Mitchell Marsh due to injuries. So that doubles Capitals’ worries: a misfiring batting line-up on a potentially spin-friendly pitch, and Capitals have the second lowest batting average against spin (28.44) this season behind Kolkata Knight Riders.

Unlike LSG, Capitals come into the contest having lost their previous two games and are at the bottom of the table with just one win in their first five matches. And they are still looking for their first win against LSG, having lost all three of their matches so far.

Form guide

LSG LWWW (Most recent matches first)
DC LLWLL

Team news and Impact Player strategy

Lucknow Super Giants
Fast bowler Mayank Yadav had walked off the field after bowling one over in their last game, against Titans. LSG said he will have his workload managed over the coming week as a “precaution”, and head coach Justin Langer all but ruled him out of the next two games. LSG also continue to wait on the fitness of Mohsin, who had a sore hamstring and missed his side’s last two games.

If both Mayank and Mohsin miss out against DC, LSG could play left-arm pacer Arshad Khan or right-arm quick Yudhvir Singh. They have two other overseas fast-bowling options in Matt Henry and Shamar Joseph.

Probable XII: 1 Quinton de Kock, 2 KL Rahul (capt, wk), 3 Devdutt Padikkal, 4 Marcus Stoinis, 5 Nicholas Pooran, 6 Ayush Badoni, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Ravi Bishnoi, 9 Yash Thakur, 10 Naveen-ul-Haq, 11 Arshad Khan, 12 M Siddharth

Delhi Capitals

Ricky Ponting, the Capitals coach, is hopeful that Kuldeep and Mukesh Kumar will be available to play in Lucknow. Marsh, however, is still side-lined by injury.

Probable XII: 1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 David Warner, 3 Abishek Porel, 4 Rishabh Pant (capt & wk), 5 Tristan Stubbs, 6 Axar Patel, 7 Lalit Yadav, 8 Jhye Richardson, 9 Anrich Nortje, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Khaleel Ahmed, 12 Kumar Kushagra

In the spotlight – Nicholas Pooran and Tristan Stubbs

Nicholas Pooran is LSG’s top run-scorer so far this season – 178 runs in four innings at a strike rate of 169.52. He has been especially impactful in the death overs, where his six-hitting abilities takes his strike rate up to 180. Pooran has been dismissed only once so far this season, and holds the key to LSG getting a strong finish to their innings.

Tristan Stubbs has been Capitals’ best batter this season. He is their top-scorer with 174 runs and has been particularly good against spin. His strike rate of 207 against the spinners is the highest for anyone who has faced at least 35 balls, so he will be key against LSG’s spinners on the day.

Stats that matter

In the IPL, Quinton de Kock’s combined record against Ishant Sharma, Anrich Nortje, Axar Patel and Khaleel Ahmed stands at 193 runs at an average of 64.33. All four are expected to start for Capitals against LSG on Friday. Ishant, Nortje and Axar have got de Kock once each, with Khaleel yet to dismiss him.

At 13.43, Nortje has the highest economy rate for any bowler to have bowled at least 90 balls this season. Umesh Yadav, second on the list, has conceded at 10.55 per over.

Since 2022, LSG have won nine of their 18 home games, the third highest win-loss ratio among all teams. By contrast, DC have won only six out of 17 away games, the fewest by any team.

Pitch and conditions

It is expected to be hot and humid in Lucknow and Langer said they would play on a black-soil pitch against Capitals. That could mean another slow, spin-friendly surface, like the one on which LSG scored a convincing victory against Titans.

Quotes

“What I was most proud about the last game was that with Mayank coming out of the team after only one over, we had to find another way to win – and we were able to do that. So it shows we’ve got some depth in our squad.”
Lucknow Super Giants head coach Justin Langer

“We are very aware that time is running out… We’ve got a lot of work to do. I absolutely have full trust in the players that we can win enough games from here.”
Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting

Himanshu Agrawal is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

Source: ESPN Crickinfo