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To what extent do the Lucknow Super Giants protect totals? They have batted first in 18 games since their debut in the 2022 Indian Premier League, winning 15 of them and losing only two, giving them an incredible win-loss ratio of 7.500. With 13 wins and 9 losses, Rajasthan Royals, the second-best team in that measure, are well behind them at 1.444.
Furthermore, LSG has never lost when they have taken the bat and reached 160. The 13th and most recent instance of this occurred on Sunday night against Gujarat Titans, and the victory embodied, in many respects, the reasons they are so adept at defending totals.
Building such an impressive bat-first record is never easy, but it is made slightly simpler if your home games are played at the IPL’s most difficult batting ground. Lucknow is rarely an easy ground to bat on, and thus to pursue on, whether it’s the low, sticky black-soil pitches LSG generally play on or the quicker, higher-bouncing red-soil surface they occasionally utilise.
However, this is only half the story—LSG has only won four of its fifteen bat-first games in Lucknow. They have also triumphed and defended on a range of neutral and away fields.
The phrase “par-plus total” was first used by MS Dhoni and eventually came to represent a kind of guiding ideology. LSG has a history of being exceptionally adept at reaching the par-plus total. Their emphasis on spin at home is a constant tribute to Dhoni’s CSK teams. They have only reached 200 twice in their eighteen IPL innings when they have batted first, but they have only ever finished below 150.
LSG’s success has frequently been based on an antiquated and divisive strategy, with Rahul serving as the team’s principal polarizer. Is it the best way to bat first in a Twenty20 match? Most likely not, although it makes sense if your bowling attack is built to stop par-plus totals.
During their inaugural season, LSG frequently fielded an all-around lineup that included Jason Holder, Marcus Stoinis, Krunal Pandya, and K Gowtham. Having so many all-rounders was less valuable after the Impact Player was introduced in the 2023 Indian Premier League, but it has aided LSG in their goal of always having an abundance of bowling options. They have been able to play three spinners without sacrificing their seam attack, for example. This year, M Siddharth has been their powerplay spinner, and Amit Mishra filled in as their third spinner on a few occasions during the previous season.
Bowler Siddharth is an intriguing player; he bowls with his left arm and uses the swinging arm ball as his stock ball with the fresh ball. Siddharth is a typical LSG bowler because of all of things. In addition to Krunal, who is an unconventional left-arm fingerspinner who has perfected the art of survival by deft use of angles and delivery pace, their lead spinner Ravi Bishnoi is a distinctive legspinner who enjoys bowling to left-hand hitters.
In addition, LSG typically selects seamers who possess strong defensive qualities, such as cutters and cross-seam deliveries into the wicket (Naveen-ul-Haq and Yash Thakur, for example). However, they can also usually rely on one or two seamers who possess true wicket-taking ability, such as Avesh Khan, Dushmantha Chameera, Mark Wood, and Mohsin Khan this season.
Naturally, it’s crucial to keep in mind that two of LSG’s 15 bat-first victories have come by margins of 12 and 10 runs, while four of the team’s 15 victories have come by margins of six runs or less—one hit, in other words, might have determined the outcome.
Therefore, LSG’s 7.5 win-loss ratio is a little misleading, and a return to the mean is not too far off. However, their skill in defending totals and the strategy behind it are undeniable.