By Duy Huynh 
Woke up this morning, coffee in hand, thinking about tonight’s IPL crunch match between Rajasthan Royals and Lucknow Super Giants. Flipped open my laptop around 9 AM, ready to piece together my Dream11 captain and vice-captain picks like I always do for big games.
First things first
Grabbed last five match reports for both teams. Clicks through tons of tabs:
- RR’s batting collapse against DC still stings
- LSG’s middle-order wobbles from Tuesday’s game
- Pitch report from Jaipur – looks dry as crackers
Keyboard gets sticky while jotting player stats. Sanju Samson’s strike rate against spin jumped out – 165! Bolded that immediately. KL Rahul’s recent scores made me scratch my head though. Dude’s been steady but not explosive.
The real grind begins
Sorted players into two buckets on my spreadsheet:
- Safe bets: Buttler (always monster at home), Stoinis (all-round gold)
- Wildcards: Parag (young gun on fire), Pooran (boom or bust kinda guy)
Spilled coffee here – keyboard survived. Checked head-to-head records and man, Ashwin owns LSG’s left-handers. Scribbled “CAPTAIN OPTION???” in red on my notepad. Then remembered how expensive Dream11 makes premium all-rounders – choked on my biscuit calculating credits.
The moment of truth
Sun’s beating down my window by now. Final calls:
Captain: Samson – Jaipur’s his kingdom and he’s hungry after last duck. Trust the hometown boy with form & conditions.
Vice-captain: Stoinis – LSG’s crisis man. When top order crumbles, this guy carries luggage AND passengers. Double-point magnet.
Saved spreadsheet at 2:37 PM. Wife yelled about cold lunch. Worth it. Now praying the cricket gods don’t screw me over tonight!
Dung Huynh 