The Cricketer takes a look at the next fixture in the 2022 Indian Premier League season
Lucknow Super Giants take on Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League.
The match will be played on Saturday, May 7 with the first ball being bowled at 7.30pm local time (3pm BST).
The teams will face off at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune.
After a good start for KKR, winning three of their first four matches, Shreyas Iyer's team lost four on the bounce before that win over the Royals. Their previous two outings saw Knight Riders lose close matches, each by fewer than 10 runs.
Andre Russell's feast or famine season has seen him generally bowl better than his usual destructive batting. This has made KKR's bowling attack a formidable one, with Russell joining countryman Narine, Southee, Umesh Yadav, and Chakravarthy as the options to Iyer's disposal.
LSG's strength also lies in their bowling – Chameera has had an excellent IPL campaign, and together with Jason Holder, Krunal Pandya, and Ravi Bishnoi, form a formidable bowling attack that will match up nicely with the Knight Riders' power-hitters.
Lucknow Super Giants find themselves comfortably in the qualification places and will be looking to cement their place in the play-offs with a win in this one. By comparison, KKR need some wins – and fast.
Kolkata Knight Riders are in need of a win [screengrab/BCCI]
Rahul has scored two hundreds and been out for two ducks this season so the Rahul v Umesh Yadav battle will be key to this one. Lucknow's hitting at the death has stuttered this season and Sunil Narine will be confident he can keep the runs down at the key time in the LSG innings.
Chameera going up against the out-of-form Aaron Finch will also be a keen contest at the top of the innings. The powerplays can often swing the momentum to one side or the other and in this game in particular they will be key.
Matches played: 0
A warm day is expected in Pune, with highs of 39 degrees Celsius, falling to 32 degrees by first ball of the match.
Lucknow Super Giants: KL Rahul, Marcus Stoinis, Ravi Bishnoi, Quinton de Kock, Manish Pandey, Jason Holder, Deepak Hooda, Krunal Pandya, Andrew Tye, Avesh Khan, Ankit Rajpoot, K Gowtham, Dushmanta Chameera, Shahbaz Nadeem, Manan Vohra, Mohsin Khan, Ayush Badoni, Kyle Mayers, Karan Sharma, Evin Lewis, Mayank Yadav, B Sai Sudharsan
Kolkata Knight Riders: Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer, Pat Cummins, Nitish Rana, Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Mavi, Sheldon Jackson, Ajinkya Rahane, Rinku Singh, Anukul Roy, Rasikh Dar, Baba Indrajith, Chamika Karunaratne, Abhijeet Tomar, Pratham Singh, Ashok Sharma, Sam Billings, Aaron Finch, Tim Southee, Ramesh Kumar, Mohammad Nabi, Umesh Yadav
Lucknow Super Giants: Quinton de Kock, KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Marcus Stoinis, Krunal Pandya, Deepak Hooda, Ayush Badoni, Jason Holder, Dushmantha Chameera, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan
Kolkata Knight Riders: Sam Billings, Sunil Narine, Shreyas Iyer, Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Shivam Mavi, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Varun Chakravarthy
Lucknow Super Giants have won four of their last five matches [screengrab/BCCI]
The bookies make Lucknow Super Giants favourites for this match with 11/13 odds. KKR are evens.
The bookies make LSG the favourites but this writer believes this will be a closer game than they are predicting. Lucknow's batting has been weak, with Stoinis and de Kock out of form – getting Rahul out early is the key for Punjab.
KKR are low on confidence and will need the experience of their overseas players if they are to stop the current run of defeats.
In the UK, Sky Sports have exclusive rights to this year's tournament, with matches available on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Cricket.
Fans in India can watch all of the action on Star Sports.
Elsewhere in the world, viewers in Australia can watch the IPL on Fox Sports while in New Zealand, Sky Sport will provide coverage.
Willow TV and Flow Sports will broadcast the tournament in the United States and the Caribbean, respectively.
Fans in MENA can catch the action on beIN Sports while in South Africa, SuperSport have the rights.
The IPL can also be streamed on Disney+ and Hotstar in certain areas.
Welcome to www.thecricketer.com - the online home of the world’s oldest cricket magazine. Breaking news, interviews, opinion and cricket goodness from every corner of our beautiful sport, from village green to national arena.