IPL 2024: Lucknow Super Giants V Mumbai Indians - Preview, Expected Line-ups, Free Bets And Offers

The State of Play

Lucknow Super Giants captain KL Rahul will hope to give his T20 World Cup chances a major boost when his side host Mumbai Indians tomorrow.

With India’s World Cup squad needing to be named by May 1, Rahul will have one final chance to grab the eye and earn one of the two wicketkeeping spots ahead of Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson.

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Pant is a near-cert after proving his fitness following a serious injury but there appears little between Rahul and Samson, who has a better strike rate after some wonderful innings for the Rajasthan Royals.

A headline-grabbing knock would certainly help Rahul’s case and also boost Lucknow’s chances of making the play-offs after defeat last time out to the Royals – a match in which Samson earned player of the match honours with a brilliant 71 not out off 33 balls.

Mumbai Indians’ post-season hopes are hanging by a thread with Hardik Pandya’s men probably having to win all five of their remaining games to sneak in.

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It appears a tall order given they have won just three games all season and come into this clash having lost their last two.

They were thrashed by nine wickets by the Royals on April 22 before going down to the Delhi Capitals by 10 runs on Saturday.

The Indians’ bowling attack remains short on quality despite possessing Jasprit Bumrah and Pandya.

They shipped 257 runs to the Capitals with Australia star Jake-Fraser McGurk teeing off for 84 runs from 27 balls.

Tilak Varma (63) and Pandya (46) got them close but it still resulted in a sixth defeat in nine games.

“Because of the kind of games and how the bowlers are under pressure, we backed ourselves to chase this,” said Pandya. “We could have taken a couple of more chances in the middle overs.”

It wasn’t to be though and the Indians are now entering the last-chance saloon.

9 league games done, 5 to go ⏳ pic.twitter.com/ZrTbCG37j5 — Lucknow Super Giants (@LucknowIPL) April 28, 2024

Expected line-ups

Lucknow Super Giants: De Kock, Rahul (c, wk), Stoinis, Hooda, Pooran, Badoni, K Pandya, Henry, Bishnoi, Khan, Thakur

Mumbai Indians: Kishan (wk), Sharma, Yadav, Varma, H Pandya (c), Wadhera, David, Nabi, Chawla, Wood, Bumrah

How to watch

Sky have the rights to show the IPL to UK viewers in 2024 and will broadcast every game live. Tuesday’s match will be shown on Sky Sports Cricket from 2.50pm BST.

In India, the games can be streamed on the Jio Cinema app and website. They are also available across the Star Sports Network.

Prediction

It has been a season to forget for the Indians. Pandya’s captaincy has been scrutinised from day one – and continues to be so – while his team have struggled to gain any kind of momentum.

In contrast, the Super Giants have fared much better and appear to have the stronger options here, with both bat and ball, particularly if big-hitting trio Quinton de Kock, Marcus Stoinis, and Nicholas Pooran can find their range.

The pressure is on Rahul and it will be fascinating to see how he approaches his innings. Even if he fails, though, there is enough talent in the Super Giants line-up to see them to a sizeable total.

We are going for the home side to win at a canter and finally put the lights out on the Indians’ dismal campaign.

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