Bottom-placed LSG hunt first home win as Patidar's RCB roll into Ekana
Lucknow Super Giants step out at home on Thursday with the simplest possible target: a first win in front of their own crowd this season. Royal Challengers Bengaluru, second in the table and the team that already chased them down at Chinnaswamy last month, are the visitors at Ekana for match 50 of IPL 2026.
The toss is at 7pm IST, with the first ball half an hour later. For Rishabh Pant's side, sitting tenth on two wins from nine, the calendar is doing its work. The playoff door is closed; the season has shrunk to a search for performances and a working batting order.
Pant's home record is the headline
LSG have won nine and lost thirteen at Ekana across all IPL seasons, but the 2026 home record is the brutal number: zero wins. Every visit to Lucknow this year has ended in a loss, and the trip to Wankhede on Monday added another defeat away from home, with Mumbai chasing down LSG's total for their highest-ever successful run chase.
Pant the captain and Pant the batter have not pulled in the same direction. The top order around him, Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran, has produced flashes rather than the consistent runs a team this far back needs. Marsh's 40 off 32 in the first leg against RCB sat alongside cameos from Ayush Badoni and Mukul Choudhary, but regular wickets meant LSG never built a competitive total.
RCB arrive looking to reset
Bengaluru come in on the back of a 155 all out at Ahmedabad, where Gujarat Titans bowled them out and chased the target with overs to spare. That was their third defeat of the season and broke a stretch of strong returns from Virat Kohli and Rajat Patidar's middle order.
The bigger picture is still in their favour. Six wins from nine and twelve points keeps RCB in third, with a healthy net run rate cushion in the bank. A win in Lucknow, against a side with nothing left to play for, is the form-fixing exercise Patidar would draw up if he had the choice.
Conditions favour a low-scoring affair
Ekana has been one of the slower surfaces on the circuit for years, and the 2026 returns there have followed the pattern. Spinners have grip, the ball stops on length, and chases under lights have not been straightforward. RCB's attack, with Krunal Pandya's left-arm spin and Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar leading the seam group, is better built for that than LSG's bowling unit.
The first leg at Chinnaswamy on April 15 was decided in 15.1 overs. RCB chased 147 with five wickets in hand, Kohli scoring 49 to lay the foundation. A repeat would push them within touching distance of the playoffs and leave Lucknow waiting another week for a result they can show their home fans.
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