Lucknow Super Giants and Kolkata Knight Riders went head-to-head in a clash between two sides sitting at the bottom of the table, with LSG captain Rishabh Pant winning the toss and choosing to bowl first in Lucknow. KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane suggested the decision made little difference, saying their plan was always to bat first.
Toss call and team news from Lucknow
Pant expressed confidence that LSG could engineer a turnaround after choosing to send KKR out to bat. In the only alteration to their XI, Lucknow brought in George Linde in place of M Siddharth.
KKR, meanwhile, named an unchanged lineup for the contest, which also meant Matheesha Pathirana was not included yet.
- LSG decision: Rishabh Pant opted to bowl after winning the toss.
- KKR stance: Ajinkya Rahane said the team was already set on batting first.
- LSG reshuffle: George Linde came in for M Siddharth.
- KKR XI: Unchanged, with Matheesha Pathirana still absent.
Playing XI details and batting order notes
On LSG’s card, Aiden Markram was slotted as an opener alongside Mitchell Marsh, while Ayush Badoni was listed at No. 5. Rishabh Pant led the side and kept wickets.
Lucknow Super Giants: 1 Aiden Markram, 2 Mitchell Marsh, 3 Rishabh Pant (capt, wk), 4 Nicholas Pooran, 5 Ayush Badoni, 6 Mukul Choudhary, 7 George Linde, 8 Mohammed Shami, 9 Prince Yadav, 10 Digvesh Rathi, 11 Mohsin Khan
Impact Player options: Himmat Singh, Avesh Khan, Abdul Samad, Akshat Raghuwanshi, M Siddharth
KKR’s XI featured Ajinkya Rahane as captain, with Tim Seifert taking the wicketkeeping role. The batting group included Cameron Green at No. 3, followed by Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rovman Powell, and Rinku Singh, while Sunil Narine was part of the bowling mix. Ramandeep Singh and Anukul Roy completed the middle and lower-order support, with Vaibhav Arora and Kartik Tyagi in the pace department.
Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Ajinkya Rahane (capt), 2 Tim Seifert (wk), 3 Cameron Green, 4 Angkrish Raghuvanshi, 5 Rovman Powell, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Sunil Narine, 8 Ramandeep Singh, 9 Anukul Roy, 10 Vaibhav Arora, 11 Kartik Tyagi
Impact Player options: Manish Pandey, Finn Allen, Tejasvi Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Navdeep Saini
Pitch report: pitch no. 6 in Lucknow
The match is being played on pitch number 6, which has not been used so far during the season. The surface is a black-soil track, with the square boundaries set at 64 metres and 69 metres, while the straight boundary measures 73 metres.
- Venue surface: Black-soil pitch
- Pitch number: No. 6 (unused this season so far)
- Boundary sizes: 64m and 69m (square), 73m (straight)
