Most of the top teams had a really unusual week, and as the new week has begun, none have yet crossed the line to have a large “Q” next to their name on the points table. On the other hand, the situation for the bottom feeders is as apparent as it is hopeless, and their battles are going to come to an unjustified conclusion. In the middle of all of this, as the Indian Premier competition (IPL) 2023 competition enters its last week, the teams that stand between qualification and catastrophe have everything to win and nothing to lose. If calamity does strike, Mumbai Indians (MI) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) have little room for maneuver and much less time to recover.
The two points against LSG will be very much appreciated by MI, which is in third place on the IPL 2023 points table with 14 points from 12 games.
The latter are dealing with two difficulties. One of the reasons is that they will be facing MI’s formidable hitting order, albeit at home. They can feel Royal Challengers Bangalore breathing down their necks on the other side. Not at all a joyful situation.
With Chennai Super Kings (CSK) losing to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their last home league game and the weekend assuring that no one could realistically cement qualification, there are four teams on 12 points each, differentiated only by run rate, and at least two of them would be praying for a miracle.
Therefore, neither the favorites nor the pretenders can rest.
Despite recent setbacks, LSG would be overjoyed with their victory against SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) in their most recent match. This has maintained them in the top four, in front of RCB, along with the one point they managed to get away with during their no-result match with CSK. However, when they destroyed Rajasthan Royals (RR) on the road, the latter team seemed fearsome.
As a result, LSG must watch their backs while hosting MI. Not exactly the finest scenario for a team that has been struggling since losing KL Rahul as captain.
MI don’t seem to be very concerned about form. They have so many batters in excellent condition that any total, whether they are chasing one or establishing one, looks to be within their reach.
They defeated the reigning champions and table-toppers Gujarat Titans (GT) by two important points, guaranteeing that GT would also have to wait a little longer for qualifying.
Suryakumar Yadav seemed to be in a different zone since his 103 runs unbeaten off only 49 deliveries against GT essentially won the match before the opposing team even batted.
There are more besides Yadav. MI seems to have a batter for every situation. There will be Nehal Wadhera, Tilak Varma, Cameron Green, or Tim David in place of Ishan Kishan or Yadav. Even Vishnu Vinod offered some criticism of GT.
The slender condition of skipper Rohit Sharma is not even now seen to be an issue by MI.
Quinton de Kock, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran, and Prerak Mankad will likely join the attack, like they did against SRH, and LSG’s acting captain Krunal Pandya will be hoping that they do.
Additionally, their bowlers, headed by Amit Mishra and Ravi Bishnoi, two veterans, must regain their form.
A challenging task for LSG, made even more so by the fact that they will have little time to rest because KKR is the only opponent remaining. With just SRH to play after LSG, qualifying for MI seems to be only a half-step away, but losing four points is also not something they would want to consider.
