Super Giants Lock Horns with Mumbai Indians in Eliminator: Preview

With playoffs starting today at 7:30 where in Qualifier 1 Gujarat will play Chennai on the other hand in the Eliminator Lucknow Super Giants will lock horns with 5 times IPL winners Mumbai Indians. 

Mumbai Indians will be more confident when they face the scrappy Lucknow Super Giants in the Eliminator here on Wednesday, thanks to their batting unit finally clicking and a lot of drama into the IPL play-offs.

Probable Lineups: 

LSG: Quinton de Kock (wk), Kyle Mayers, Krunal Pandya (c), Prerak Mankad, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran, Amit Mishra, Yash Thakur, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan, Avesh Khan

MI: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Cameron Green, Suryakumar Yadav, Nehal Wadhera, Tim David, Kumar Kartikeya, Chris Jordan, Piyush Chawla, Jason Behrendorff, Akash Madhwal

Mumbai Indians:

MI has won three of their previous five matches, losing two. MI have won 8 of their 14 games and is in fourth place due to Lucknow Super Giants, having 17 points due to the abandoned match.

MI's openers, skipper Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan are in excellent form, as are the middle order consisting of Suryakumar Yadav, Cameron Green who scored a ton last game, and Wadhera. Because of the fiery batting lineup-MI has successfully chased 200+ on four occasions his season. 

Mumbai's bowling has been one of the worst but the silver lining lies in the youngster Akash Madhwal and Jason Behrendorff along with their lead wicket-taker Piyush Chawla. 

MI will most definitely look to chase the total down and advance to Qualifier 2. Mumbai will most definitely look to bat second and chase down the total irrespective of how huge it is. 

Lucknow Super Giants:

Lucknow are comfortable with batting first or batting in second innings. The lineup seems more balanced and stronger on paper with Kyle Mayers, Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran all in form, forming a very powerful force in the middle order. Quinton de Kock has joined the force lately and it remains to be seen whether Mankhad will open alongside in the absence of skipper KL Rahul who had to undergo surgery for right thigh. 

The bowling has been decent with the likes of Krunal, Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan and Yash Thakur performing well. In the absence of Mark Wood youngsters Mohsin Khan and Yash Thakur stepped up. Ravi Bishnoi has had his best season in IPL but still hasn't been given much opportunity this season. It will remain to be seen whether or not the bowling can curb Mumbai's batting.

Pitch Report: 

A total of 4-5 different pitches have been used at Chepauk and it will remain to see which pitch is used. Two pitches are high scoring (170-200) whereas the other two are slow tracks which will see a lot of spin and cutters. Ideally whoever wins the toss will look to chase as chasing has been successful here. 

Mumbai earlier in the season struggled at Chepauk badly whereas LSG scored 205, albeit losing the game.

Both Mumbai and Lucknow lost their matches here, so it will be interesting to see who triumphs. 

With Mumbai finishing at 10th last season, they will look to make an entry to the playoffs with style whereas Lucknow lost to RCB at the same stage last season. Mumbai have never defeated Lucknow yet but only time will tell who emerges on top.