LSG eye home comforts in hospitable Lucknow

On arrival in Lucknow, you will see a lot of hoardings that announce 'Muskuraiye, aap Lucknow mein hai (Smile, you're in Lucknow)'. It's an old greeting from the city for its visitors. The Ekana International Stadium, built in 'New' Lucknow isn't as courteous though. The invite to the stadium through hoardings on the white exterior walls, visibly clear even 50 meters away, reads: 'Adab se harayenge (We will thrash you, respectfully)'.

For cricket, Old Lucknow's tehzeeb makes way for New Lucknow's teekhi zubaan.

The bold wordplay, however, can be daunting for the visiting teams only as long as the KL Rahul-led side put on performances worth the weight of their words. The last time they played at the venue - also their first-ever home game - they outplayed Delhi Capitals with bat, ball on the field. Their next visitors - Sunrisers Hyderabad - were at the receiving end of such a dominant performance, from Rajasthan Royals in their opening match.

But that was on one of the six red-soil tracks where LSG had posted 193. On Friday, the contest will be played on the neighbouring black soil pitch; the one that had come in for heavy criticism after India's narrow win in the low-scoring clash