Today at IPL 2022: LSG in touching distance of top spot against KKR, PBKS continue playoffs push vs RR
India Today
The Indian Premier League table can potentially end up looking very different after Saturday as Lucknow Super Giants eye the top spot. On the other hand, a revamped Punjab Kings will once again look to hit hard against Rajasthan Royals hoping to sneak into the fourth spot of the league table.
It is time for games 52 and 53 in the Indian Premier League on Saturday, 7 May, with Punjab Kings and Lucknow Super Giants going up against Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders respectively.
Former opening partnerships at the Punjab Kings - KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal will be leading their respective teams on Saturday, and if results go their way, things could look drastically different in the league table. Lucknow have a chance to move to the top of the points table, a huge boost at this stage of the competition. Punjab, on the other hand, come into the game with a shattering win against league leaders Gujarat Titans, and will sneak into the top four positions if they manage to defeat Rajasthan Royals in the first game of the day.
IPL is at a stage where barring the top two teams, others do not have the luxury to drop further points, and Rajasthan should walk into the game remember than after being robbed in their last game by Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh.
Rajasthan would have felt hard done by the loss in their last game after they got into a squabble with the umpire over wide balls. If recent history is anything to go by, it is highly likely that Sanju Samson would come hard at Punjab and an able bowling line-up with the likes of Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin can make it very tricky for the Mayank Agarwal team.
KL Rahul and Quinton de Kock attacked from the start in their last game against Delhi Capitals setting the tone for the rest of the innings. After de Kock's departure, Deepak Hooda at three not only bettered the tempo, but managed to put an individual half century as well.
However, that's where it stopped. Throughout the season, Lucknow have underused one of their marquee signs - Marcus Stoinis. In their last game, they sent Stoinis to bat against Kuldeep Yadav - something he clearly isn't fond of. This killed Lucknow's momentum in the back end of the innings and put a huge amount of pressure on KL Rahul to shoulder the majority of the scoring.
Not only did Lucknow use Stoinis poorly in the batting, they also chucked him in the deep end giving him his first over in the final over of the game. With 21 runs to defend, Stoinis was hit for a six in the first ball of the over, which sent chills through the spine of the Lucknow fans. At the end however, he managed to win it for LSG with six runs to spare.