With three back-to-back wins, a buoyant Rising Pune Supergiant will take on two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders at the MCA, Stadium Pune on Wednesday. Pune, who are on eight points, will look to draw level with Kolkata, who are eyeing the top spot. In their last encounter, Pune beat table toppers Mumbai in a thrilling last over finish, which ended the latter’s six-match winning streak. Effective bowling by Ben Stokes and Jaydev Unadkat, who took three wickets, led to Pune’s win.

However, Kolkata’s last encounter was a also clash to remember as Gautam Gambhir’s pace unit bowled the Royal Challengers Bangalore for 49 at Eden Gardens.

With opener Rahul Tripathi scoring 31, 59 and 45 in the last three matches for Pune and with former skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni hitting top form against Sunrisers Hyderabad with an unbeaten 61, they look like a solid batting unit given the likes of Ajinkya Rahane, Steve Smith and Manoj Tiwary in the ranks. Imran Tahir, Stokes and Unadkat head the bowling attack. It will be an interesting battle between bat and ball given Kolkata’s formidable bowling attack.

With two losses and five wins in seven matches, Kolkata have the momentum to get the job done. Chris Woakes, Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav and Colin de Grandhomme in the bowling department, Pune have their task cut out for them.

However, skipper Gambhir said that Nathan Coulter-Nile has been rested for the clash owing to the taxing schedule of the team. “We want to manage his workload especially with the kind of schedule we have. We want him to be with us fit for the entire tournament,” said Gambhir. “We want to manage his workload especially with the kind of schedule we have. We want him to be with us fit for the entire tournament,” he added.

Time: 8 pm

Venue: MCA Stadium, Pune

TV: Sony Max, Sony Six, Sony ESPN and their HD channels

Head-to-head

Played: 2

Rising Pune Supergiant: 0

Kolkata Knight Riders: 2

The squads

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (Capt), Darren Bravo, Trent Boult, Piyush Chawla, Nathan Coulter Nile, Colin de Grandhomme, Rishi Dhawan, Sayan Ghosh, Shaikb-Al-Hasan, Sheldon Jackson, Ishank Jaggi, Kuldeep Yadav, Chris Woakes, Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Ankit Rajpoot, Suryakumar Yadav, Robin Uthappa and Umesh Yadav.

Rising Pune Supergiant: Steve Smith (Capt), Ajinkya Rahane, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ashok Dinda, Faf du Plessis, Mayank Agarwal, Ankit Sharma, Baba Aparajith, Ankush Bains, Rajat Bhatia, Deepak Chahar, Rahul Chahar, Dan Christian, Lockie Ferguson, Imran Tahir, Jaskaran Singh, Usman Khawaja, Saurabh Kumar, Ben Stokes, Washington Sundar, Milind Tandon, Manoj Tiwary, Adam Zampa, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishwar Pandey, Rahul Tripathi, Shardul Thakur.