Lucknow Super Giants vs Sunrisers Hyderabad Predictions: The teams will be boosted by return of South African players

Playing in their third game of the season Lucknow Super Giants will welcome Sunrisers Hyderabad in the tenth game of the season at Ekana Sports City on 7th April. The teams have started their campaigns in very contrasting manners. Who will win this game?

Lucknow Super Giants have had a mixed start to their campaign in the tournament, winning only one of their two matches. They defeated Delhi Capitals but couldn't continue their winning form against Chennai Super Kings. LSG lost the game by 12 runs, even after Kyle Mayers (53) and Nicholas Pooran (32) tried their best. The team conceded 217, with Ravi Bishoi and Mark Wood each picking three wickets.

Ahead of their next match, LSG has brought in Quinton de Kock to their squad, who is expected to replace Marcus Stoinis. Kyle Mayers has been in great form, scoring two half-centuries in the two matches played so far. He has been promoted up the order to open the innings with Rahul, in the absence of De Kock. Nicholas Pooran has also displayed his skills in both matches, adding to the team's strength.

Mark Wood's performance has been a mix of brilliance and struggle. He picked up five wickets in the first match against Delhi Capitals but was hit for runs in the second match against CSK. Nonetheless, he still managed to claim three wickets, proving to be an asset for the team.

Quinton de Kock (wk), Kyle Mayers, KL Rahul (c), Deepak Hooda, Nicholas Pooran, Krunal Pandya, Krishnappa Gowtham, Avesh Khan, Mark Wood, Ravi Bishnoi, Yash Thakur

Sunrisers Hyderabad suffered a tough loss in their first game against Rajasthan Royals, which added to the already poor captaincy record of Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Despite putting in a reasonable effort towards the end of the innings, Sunrisers' bowlers were unable to contain Rajasthan's openers, Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal, who set a record for the highest-ever powerplay score for Rajasthan in the history of the IPL. 

None of the six bowlers utilized by the Sunrisers that day could make an impact, which is a significant concern for the team based in Hyderabad. On the batting front, Sunrisers failed to make a significant impact and could only manage to score 131/8 within their designated 20 overs. They were unable to compete and appeared to be out of the game at every point. As a result, Sunrisers Hyderabad will need to make significant changes if they want to perform better in their upcoming matches. However, there is good news for the Sunrisers as they welcome back their skipper Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, and Marco Jansen, all of whom have been in excellent form. It is anticipated that they will replace Harry Brook, Glenn Phillips, and Fazalhaq Farooqi in the upcoming game.

Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Mayank Agarwal, Harry Brook, Rahul Tripathi, Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram (c), Washington Sundar, T Natarajan, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik

Black soil is the most prominent feature in pitches of this stadium in Lucknow and is likely to aid the pacers by generating bounce and keeping them in the game. Spinners too can leave a mark as shown by Ravi Bishnoi in the previous game against Delhi. Batters would need to stick to the basics and spend time in the middle before going for lofty hits. Sides batting first generally fare well in this venue, as we also saw in the previous encounter between Lucknow and Delhi. While the last game saw Lucknow putting up a rather mammoth 193 on board, going by the records and the average, anything in the 170s should be a healthy total on this pitch. The side winning the toss should opt to bat first. We expect Lucknow to win this tie given their recent form.