Lucknow, Apr 29 (IANS): After two consecutive defeats against Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals, Mumbai Indians will face off against Lucknow Super Giants on Tuesday, hoping to win Match 48 and keep alive their hopes of making the playoffs of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at Ekana Cricket Stadium here on Tuesday.

In the four matches between the two teams so far, LSG has the upper hand by 3-1, whereas when these two teams met for the first-time last year at Ekana Cricket Ground, got a thrilling victory by five runs. Talking about the points table, LSG are in fifth position with five wins and 10 points from nine matches, while Mumbai Indians are in the ninth position with three wins and six points from the same number of matches.

LSG on Monday were boosted by the return of their speed sensation Mayank Yadav as bowling coach Morne Morkel said, “Regarding Mayank Yadav, he has passed all the fitness tests and is in the probable XII for the match against Mumbai Indians. He is looking good and is ready to bowl again,” said Morkel in the pre-match press conference on Monday.

Yadav was also seen bowling in the evening practice session at the stadium on Tuesday. The win against MI will propel LSG to second or third position with home ground advantage.

The strong batting department of five-time winner Mumbai Indians have struggled in their bowling department, especially with their overseas seamers. Even before the tournament began, injuries had already ruled out Dilshan Madushanka and Jason Behrendorff. Luke Wood and Kwena Maphaka, who replaced them, fell short of the expectations. In the two games he has played, Nuwan Thushara has gone for 12 an over with no wickets to his name. Gerald Coetzee has amassed 12 wickets in eight games with an economy of 10.10.

The 41-year-old Amit Mishra, who is among the top five bowlers taking the most wickets in IPL history, has got a chance to play only one match in IPL 2024 when he came in as an Impact Player in the last match against Rajasthan Royals (RR) and took the important wicket of Riyan Parag.

He may also get a place in the match against MI, as his T20 record against Rohit Sharma has been excellent. He has dismissed the Indian captain and MI's most experienced player seven times, while Rohit can only score runs at a strike rate of 95.6.

Apart from this, Mishra also troubled Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya with his leg-break bowling and has dismissed him in two out of four innings, while Hardik Pandya was able to score runs against him only at a strike rate of 64.28.

However, Mishra will have to be careful of Suryakumar Yadav, who scores runs at a strike rate of 212, whereas Mishra has not been able to dismiss Yadav in a single innings.

The form of LSG's other leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi in IPL 2024 has not been very special and his chances of being selected in the Indian T20 World Cup team have also become very slim. He has dismissed Ishan Kishan and Yadav three times each and Rohit Sharma and Tim David twice each in T20 matches, while Mohammad Nabi has also been his victim once in three innings.

Marcus Stoinis, who indicated a return to form by scoring a century in the match against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), has been defeated by MI's most prominent bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who has dismissed Stoinis in four T20 innings.

Bumrah has also dismissed K.L. Rahul, Nicholas Pooran and Devdutt Padikkal twice each, whereas, except Rahul, all the other batsmen can score runs against Bumrah at a strike rate of less than 100.

IPL 2024 got off to a great start for Quinton de Kock, who scored two half-centuries in the first three matches. However, he has not been consistent thereafter, only reaching 20 once in six innings. LSG need de Kock to return to form quickly because they haven't been able to score easily in the Power-play -- their run rate of 8.38 is the second worst in that phase this season.

"If you look at Quinny's (de Kock's) season, he has played nine innings and has scored three fifties, which is not a bad thing. But also, he got out sort of in the first or second overs at times. We will know his X factor. He is a guy who on his day can take their game away from you. Do you want to make too many changes? I think with the experience he brings at the top, you don't want to change that. Just with his history, you need to back him in that position,” said Morkel on Monday.

This year, Rahul, who is among the top five batsmen after scoring 378 runs at an average of 42 and strike rate of 144, will have the last chance to win the selectors' nod for the T20 World Cup.

Rahul can also do wonders in this match because his record against almost all the bowlers of MI has been excellent. Bumrah may have dismissed him twice, but Rahul bats against Bumrah at a strike rate of 127.67. His strike rate against Piyush Chawla is 168.42, against Hardik Pandya is 178.26 and against Mohammad Nabi is 214.28, whereas apart from Bumrah, only Chawla has been able to get him out in any T20 match, the rest of the bowlers' bags have remained empty.