LSG eye high against MI

With Lucknow Super Giants having a miniscule chance of qualifying for the Playoffs, assistant coach Lance Klusener is hoping team can deliver in last league match v MI tonight

Mumbai Indians (MI) will play for pride in their last league match and want to go out on a high in front of their home crowd at the Wankhede on Friday as they host the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), who have a miniscule chance of making it to their third consecutive Playoffs.

Still hurting that Rohit Sharma is not their captain anymore, the MI fans will hope that their team finishes this edition with a win, more so at home which has not been their fortress anymore at least this season. MI won three matches out of six at home this IPL. Their dismal season is reflected by their bottom-most position in the table (eight points).

Mumbai Indians batter Nehal Wadhera (left) with former skipper Rohit Sharma during a practice session at the Wankhede yesterday. Pic/Satej Shinde

Rohit, Kishan must fire together

Openers Rohit and Ishan Kishan have not fired collectively and often it was left to Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav to do the bulk of the scoring, while Jasprit Bumrah has bowled tirelessly and economically to pick 20 wickets and be among the top two wicket-takers.

Currently on 12 points, LSG need to win and pray that other results over the weekend go in their favour—they would be hoping that CSK (14 points) can beat RCB (12 points) and SRH (14 points) lose badly so that their Net Run Rate drops. LSG however, must accept that they’ve had a below ordinary season. Their current Net Run Rate of minus 0.787 will not help them progress even if there is a tie on 14 points.

Lance Klusener 

LSG assistant coach Lance Klusener said on the eve of the match that his team are not resigned to the fact that they can’t make the Playoffs. “We’ve had enough opportunities over the course of the competition to make sure we don’t have to rely on others. Yes, there is a small margin, but if that takes care of itself, that’s great,” he said.

LSG have often relied heavily on their skipper KL Rahul (465 runs) and Nicolas Pooran (424) to do the bulk of scoring while Marcus Stoinis (360) has contributed too though inconsistently while Quinton de Kock has been a failure, averaging 22.72 in 11 innings.

‘KL needs more support’

Former South African all-rounder Klusener said that Rahul has not enjoyed a lot of support. “He [Rahul] is a little frustrated about his performances over the tournament. He has had to rebuild a lot of the times [while] we’ve lost wickets around him. We haven’t allowed him to play his natural game. So, it’s easy to just sit and think, ‘oh, well, he hasn’t had a great tournament’, but if you look at his numbers, they’re actually not bad at all. The batting group around him haven’t done him too many favours.”

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