Lucknow Super Giants vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, 31st Match - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Hello and welcome to the live blog of the IPL 2022 clash between Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore. Before we get cracking with the contest, here's a preview from Gokul Gopal -

Just two days back, Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore became the second and third teams respectively to get to eight points on the standings. And their respective journeys in this IPL have been similar too. Both started with a loss, both registered a hat-trick of victories and then lost the subsequent game. Now, ahead of the clash at the DY Patil Stadium, both teams have the confidence of another victory to their names as they face off to end the symmetry that they've carried along so far.

RCB's primary concern will be the top order, with skipper Faf du Plessis and former captain Virat Kohli having managed only one fifty-plus score in the 12 innings between them. Du Plessis started off with an innings of 88 against Punjab Kings, which he scored at a strike rate of 154, while Kohli hit 41 not out off 29 in that game. Since then, du Plessis has only managed 66 runs in five innings, at under a run a ball. After RCB's opening game, Kohli's sequence reads: 12, 5, 48, 1, and 12, with an overall strike rate of 101.42 from these five games. While Glenn Maxwell and Dinesh Karthik have masked RCB's problem at the top, they won't mind some runs there. Meanwhile, RCB will be encouraged by the improved showing by Mohammed Siraj in the last game - an economy of 7.75 as well as two wickets - having previously gone for a lot of runs.

For LSG, KL Rahul leading from the front against MI with a ton would have pleased the management, with the three-figure score following a couple of low-scoring outings. Marcus Stoinis, having joined the team for their last two games, has looked promising, while Manish Pandey getting amongst the runs in the last game would also be a confidence booster for the team. But they will be slightly worried with their overseas paceman Dushmantha Chameera's tendency to leak runs. He has gone for 12 or more in an over in two games, and LSG will want him to tighten up.