Preview, UPT20 | Bhuvi's Lucknow Falcons set their eyes on taking down Gorakhpur Lions in Eliminator

The UPT20 League is only two years old but narratives are already starting to take shape. Take the case of Lucknow Falcons for instance -- in both 2023 and 2024, the side showed immense promise to end in the top three, yet failed to make it to the finals on either occassion. Last year, they even had two shots at it but ended up losing both qualifiers and had to settle with a bronze-medal finish. Regardless, skipper Bhuvneshwar Kumar arguably remains the biggest name in the league and albeit his season so far hasnt been as fruitfulin terms of wickets, don't put it past him to channel all his experience into a match-winning performance come Wednesday when it matters the most.

Then there is the Gorakhpur Lions, who hold the unwanted distinct honour of claiming the wooden spoon in the tournament's inaugural season and then finishing fifth in 2024. However, their one-rank rise continued into 2025, ensuring they finished fourth in 2025 largely courtesy of a clinical first half of the season where they went on a run of three victories in four games to practically seal a playoff spot. Batting has been a cause of concern for the team, despite skipper Akshdeep Nath tallying 300-plus while Siddharth Jain has struck at 183.80 for his 261 runs. However, the Lions have managed to assemble a fearsome pace trio in Vasu Vats, Prince Yadav, and Teerath Singh, and will be counting on them to earn victory on Wednesday.

Form Guide

Lucknow Falcons come into the playoffs in high spirits, having won their last two league games to ensure a top-four finish. The Lions, meanwhile, enjoyed a strong first half of the campaign but lost their way thereafter, losing their last two league games to end with a horrid net run rate of -0.779.

Lucknow Falcons:  W W L L W

Gorakhpur Lions:  L L W L W

LF vs GL Head-to-Head in UPT20

The two teams have met each other six times in UPT20, with Lucknow Falcons coming out on top on four occassions albeit Wednesday's Eliminator will be their first ever playoff showdown. This season, the two teams split honours as Gorakhpur won the first meeting by seven wickets but succumbed to a 60-run defeat in the reverse encounter. 

Lucknow 4 - 2 Gorakhpur

Pitch and Weather

The average first innings score at the Ekana in UPT20 2025 has been 175, with teams surpassing 220 on several occassions as well as succumbing for under 120. The red and black soil options add an interesting variation to proceedigns albeit with the tournament approaching an end and monsoon harking on the door, batters are bound to struggle one way or another. As for the toss, a high possibility of dew means whichever captain wins the toss is likely to bowl first.

Fortunately, there is rain forecast for the duratio of the encounter as per Accuweather despite the intermittent presence of clouds. The temparature is expected to stay steady around the 30 degrees celsius mark with a gradual decrease as the night matures, and humidity will remain extremely high as is the norm for the city during this time of the year. 

Team News

Having made the playoffs after a tightly contested league stage, both teams will be reluctant in making any changes to their winning combinations.

Lucknow Falcons Probable XI: Samarth Singh, Aaradhya Yadav (wk), Shoaib Siddiqui, Mohammad Saif, Sameer Choudhary, Kritagya Singh, Vipraj Nigam, Akshu Bajwa, Satyam Pandey, Bhuvneshwar Kuamr (c), Abhinandan Singh, Navneet 

Gorakhpur Lions Probable XI: Nishant Kushwaha, Hardeep Singh (wk), Akshdeep Nath (c), Siddharth Jain, Bhaskar Bharadwaj, Prince Yadav, Shivam Sharma, Ankit Chaudhary, Vasu Vats, Teerath Singh, Vishal Nishad, Abdul Rehman

Broadcasting Platforms

The UPT20 2025 Eiminator between Lucknow Falcons and Gorakhpur Lions will be broadcast on Fancode beginning 7:30 PM IST.