LSG vs CSK : Out of Form CSK Meets Resurgent LSG In A Crunch Match For MS Dhoni & Co

Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) take on a struggling Chennai Super Kings (CSK) side at the Ekana Cricket Stadium on Monday, April 14, in Match 30 of the ongoing IPL 2025.MS Dhoni’s return to captaincy duties stirred a strong sense of deja vu. But for the five-time title-winning skipper, it’s been far from a happy throwback.

His team once again resembles a ‘ship full of holes’ he spoke of in 2020, the season they sunk to a second-from-bottom finish. The signs this year are even more ominous – in that 2020 season, CSK had one more win at this stage than they do now. Lucknow Super Giants, meanwhile, carry none of CSK’s woes into their fourth home fixture of the season. They’ve enjoyed three wins and just one loss at the Ekana Stadium and have the tournament’s most prolific six-hitter turning out for them.

LSG vs CSK : Previous Performances

Rishabh Pant may not be in great form with the bat, but he has led LSG commendably. After starting the tournament with two defeats from their first three matches, Lucknow is on a three-match winning streak. They defeated Gujarat Titans at home in their most recent clash by six wickets, as they chased down an 181-run target with three balls to spare. LSG would want to continue their winning streak on Monday.

Rishabh Pant’s returns have been worrisome and worth sweating over, but the LSG captain has been able to breathe easy with the batting cushion of his top-three (Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh and Pooran). LSG’s bowling has needed some rescuing in a couple of their wins, but even that facet of their game has slowly started to come together. Having catapulted into the top 4 with their win over Gujarat Titans on Saturday, LSG now have the opportunity to reach for the very top by digging their heels into an out-of-sorts opposition.

Meanwhile, the Chennai Super Kings have had a horrible start to their IPL 2025 campaign. After beating Mumbai Indians in their opening fixture, CSK have gone on to lose five consecutive matches. This is the first time they have lost five matches in a row in the IPL. In the last game against Kolkata Knight Riders, MS Dhoni returned as the captain of the side. However, even the legendary cricketer couldn’t inspire a turnaround as CSK suffered an eight-wicket defeat after being restricted to 103/9. The Knights needed just 10.1 overs to topple the target.

Fleming has confirmed what many of the CSK faithful now fear – Dhoni has no ‘magic wand’ to flip their season around. His side is knee-deep in a batting quicksand that needs careful attention over the next month, starting from Monday. They arrived in Lucknow on the back of a harrowing home defeat, where they played as many dot balls (61) as their opposition (KKR) needed deliveries to chase down the target.

With and without Ruturaj Gaikwad, there’s been a clear absence of batting intent that’s left them a distant second-best in all their five defeats. CSK will hope the soul-searching they’ve done since the last home loss, per Fleming, will spark a course correction. CSK don’t have the luxury of even thinking of points-table position as yet, with only a focus on collecting a succession of points capable of saving their ship from capsizing for good.

LSG vs CSK : Head to Head

LSG 3 – 1 CSK in 5 matches with one No-Result. All four games between the two sides have been high-scoring contests.

LSG vs CSK : Pitch and Weather Report

Lucknow’s Ekana Cricket Stadium has hosted 17 IPL games so far. The teams batting first have won eight matches, and the chasing teams have won as many. Ekana is generally known for being a tough ground for the batters. However, this season, bowlers have not had too much assistance from the surface. The captain who wins the toss would want to bowl first.

The average score batting first at Ekana Stadium so far this season is 184. The ground dimensions are among the bigger ones in the country, which will bring spinners into play. The team chasing has won six out of the 10 games here since IPL 2024. Even square dimensions. After hosting PBKS on a red-soil wicket and both MI and GT on black soil, LSG will play CSK on pitch No.5 of 9 – a mixed soil surface.

Half an hour into CSK’s training on Sunday, a gusty windstorm sent the ground staff scrambling to cover the pitch, which remained under wraps for over an hour. But the rain stayed away, allowing a full session for the few who turned up. There is no forecast for rain on match day either.

LSG vs CSK : Big Picture : LSG’s spinners vs CSK

Mentor and mentee, both struggling captains, lead teams on opposite ends of the table – LSG vs CSK is a clash of contrasts. Rishabh Pant has some cushion as LSG are riding a three-match winning streak, while CSK have slumped to five consecutive losses for the first time in their history. Any sense of excitement or elation at MS Dhoni returning to take over as captain seems to have dissipated following a crushing loss to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at home two nights ago.

Where LSG have showcased batting flexibility and have backed unheralded Indian talents like Digvesh Rathi, CSK, by contrast, have stuck to a rigid template with little room for experimentation.

LSG have played with intent from ball one and haven’t lost a wicket in the powerplay for three straight games, while CSK continue to struggle for momentum and stability at the top. They don’t have a single batter in the top 10; Rachin Ravindra tops their charts with 149 runs – the last time a team did not have a single batter score 150 runs after six games into a season was KKR in 2014.

Nicholas Pooran alone has nearly hit more sixes (31) than all of CSK combined (32). His tempo at No. 3, along with Aiden Markram’s return to form and Mitchell Marsh’s aggression have made LSG among pacesetters: they score at 10.3 in the powerplay as compared to CSK’s 7.5, which is the season’s lowest. In fact, CSK’s combined strike rate of 124.23 is the worst.

In their previous game at home, against KKR, CSK’s batting approach was a reflection of these struggles. They attempted to hit a boundary just 15 times in the innings as per ESPNCricinfo’s data – which is by far the lowest number of attempts by a team since IPL 2023. Overall too, their attempt to hit boundaries this season stands at 38.3% of balls faced, the second-lowest this season.

In all, CSK have lost most wickets to spin this season, and LSG have two quality ones in rookie Rathi and Ravi Bishnoi, who rediscovered his form in the previous game. That’ll make getting out of the mess they’re in that much tougher on Monday, but they must or they risk elimination halfway in.

LSG vs CSK : In the Spotlight : Rishabh Pant and R Ashwin

Rishabh Pant hasn’t been able to get going in IPL 2025 – he has tallied 40 runs at a strike rate of 80 in four innings. Until the previous game, he hadn’t batted long enough to read a whole lot into the strike rate aspect. But against GT, he opened – for the first time in T20s since 2016 – and struggled his way to 21 off 18 before falling to Prasidh Krishna’s slower delivery. Pant’s rough patch hasn’t been a cause for concern as yet thanks to their other batters being in form. Can he find his gears against CSK?

R Ashwin‘s reunion with CSK after nearly a decade hasn’t gone as planned. He’s bowled his full quota in just three of the six games, doesn’t have as many wickets as he’d like (five) to show. He’s been expensive in the powerplay and death (conceding at 15 an over). But he has a favourable match-up against Pooran, having dismissed him thrice in eight innings while conceding at a strike rate of 93.

It’s in the middle overs, where he concedes at 7.7, that CSK may want to use him, even though Noor Ahmad has the most wickets by a spinner (10) in that phase this season.

LSG vs CSK : Vital Stats that matters