DC to meet LSG in their IPL 2025 opener: Preview
What's the story
The fourth match of the IPL 2025 season will see Delhi Capitals (DC) take on Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam.
The game will be played on Monday, March 24.
Both teams will be hoping to get off to a strong start to their campaigns after narrowly missing out on playoff spots last year on net run rate discrepancies.
Details
Pitch report and conditions
The pitch at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium is expected to favor the batters.
Out of the 15 IPL games played in Vishakhapatnam, teams batting first have won eight games, as per ESPNcricinfo.
As the dew factor is unlikely to come into play, the toss-winning skipper might consider electing to bat first.
Star Sports will telecast the match, fans can also live-stream it on the JioHotstar app or website (7:30pm IST).
H2H
Here's the head-to-head record
The two sides have clashed in only five games since LSG were one of the two newly-introduced sides in IPL 2022.
While LSG prevailed in the first three meetings, DC ended the streak by winning both the games against the Super Giants last season.
Interestingly, Rahul led LSG last season while Pant was at the helm of affairs at DC.
Last season's review
Team standings and performance in IPL 2024
In the last season, Delhi Capitals ended up sixth in the points table under Rishabh Pant's captaincy, winning seven games and losing as many.
Lucknow Super Giants concluded their campaign at the seventh place with a net run rate that prevented them from making it to playoffs despite winning seven out of 14 league matches.
Both sides are now eyeing a top-four finish this season.
Player spotlight
Key players to watch in the upcoming match
Delhi Capitals squad features key players like Jake Fraser-McGurk, KL Rahul, and new skipper Axar Patel.
On the other hand, Lucknow Super Giants will be led by Rishabh Pant this season with star players like Mitchell Marsh, David Miller, and Aiden Markram.
However, LSG have been dented as none of their four premier pacers Mohsin Khan, Mayank Yadav, Avesh Khan, and Akash Deep are available.
XIs
Here are the probable XIs
LSG (Probable XI): Arshin Kulkarni, Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, David Miller, Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Ravi Bishnoi, Shamar Joseph.
DC (Probable XI): Faf du Plessis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Abishek Porel (wk), KL Rahul, Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel (c), Ashutosh Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav, Mitchell Starc, Mohit Sharma, T Natarajan.
Impact subs: Mukesh Kumar and Aryan Juyal.
Stats
Here are the key performers
As per ESPNcricinfo, Pant was DC's top scorer in IPL 2024 with 446 runs at 40.54 (SR: 155.40).
Fraser-McGurk struck at a jaw-dropping rate of 234.04 last season, having scored 330 runs at 36.66.
Left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav bagged 16 scalps last year at 23.25.
Rahul finished IPL 2024 with 520 runs at 37.14.
Nicholas Pooran, who managed 499 runs last year, struck at 178.21.
Ravi Bishnoi took 10 scalps in IPL 2024 at 38.30.