IPL-2023: Lucknow Super Giants to take on Gujarat Titans in Lucknow
In IPL Cricket, today, April 22, Lucknow Super Giants will take on Gujarat Titans at Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow at 3.30 pm.
Gujarat Titans have won the toss and have opted to bat
Noor Ahmad is debuting for Gujarat Titans today. Rashid Khan is presenting the cap to Noor and he has a beaming smile on his face.
‘The side boundaries are 63m on one side and 72m on the other. The straight boundary is massive at 78m and the pockets are large as well. This pitch was used in the match against SRH which was a low-scoring affair, but this looks slightly better. Very little grass on this one, spinners will have to bowl a Test match length if they’re to succeed’, reckon Murali Kartik and Daren Ganga, in their pitch report
Nicholas Pooran: I am feeling really good, getting some scores behind my name importantly, and the team is winning, so very happy. I want to try to play the game in the right way as much as possible and focus my energy on what I need to do for the team. We know as a group we let that game against Punjab get away from us, disappointed about that. But, believe as a group, we haven’t played our best cricket yet. The first six games have been a learning curve for us. It has been about understanding each other, understanding our roles better, also supporting KL as well and giving him our 100 percent support on the field as well. We are still trying our best to understand that obviously there are two different types of pitches here. Our conversation is not to focus on the pitch, focus on the ball and it is as simple as that. We try and assess as fast as possible, Kyle and KL have been doing that for us throughout the tournament and we are going to continue in that direction.
Mohammad Shami: I am just trying to focus on my responsibility and execute them, especially in the powerplay. Irrespective of the formats, if you bowl in the right areas and the right lengths you’ll get the results, whether it’s the red ball or white ball. In T20 format things change pretty quickly, you don’t even realise sometimes. We are playing with the same approach and the same mindset in both – home and away games.
The stadium is right next to Phoenix Palassio mall here, so a lot of buzz on the streets owing to this game coinciding with Eid. How much of that buzz translates into the crowd attendance today is anybody’s guess, observes our writer Pratyush
Pratyush from the stadium pings: Hello from Lucknow. Sai Kishore and Noor Ahmad having an early bowl on one of the side pitches. LSG haven’t arrived for practice yet. It’s pretty hot out there at the moment.
The defending champions, Gujarat Titans, have had a mixed season so far but they still have won 3 out of their 5 games. They began in style as they won their first two games but have blown hot and cold since then. Their death bowling woes came to the fore once again as they lost a tight game against RR. But, they are a champion side and we can expect them to come back hard. Also in the previous season, they had the wood over LSG on both occasions. Stitching together a few wins in a row is what both these sides will be striving for. We have seen contrasting surfaces in Lucknow in the three games played here so far and let’s see what the surface has in store for us today. Stick around as toss and team lineups will be out shortly..
