Two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders will cross swords with Rising Pune Supergiant on back of their heaviest defeat of the season.

Looking unstoppable with a hat-trick of wins and enjoying a two-point lead over Mumbai Indians, KKR’s winning streak was stopped by the Sunrisers on Sunday.

KKR will now be under pressure to secure the magic number of 16 points and seal their place in the knock-out stage after Mumbai became the first team to secure a play-off berth.

A win for Gautam Gambhir’s men could see them seal place in the top-four, however it won’t be an easy task considering the form Pune has been in off late.

The visitors have been on the ascent from the bottom-half of the table and now find themselves placed securely in top four with a four-point lead over fifth-placed Kings XI Punjab.

Million-dollar Ben Stokes proved his worth with the bat when he hit his maiden Twenty20 century (103 off 63 balls) with less than three weeks to go for the final. All eyes will once again be on the League’s costliest player as they visit the formidable KKR at the Eden Gardens.

Time: 8 pm

Venue: Eden Gardens, Kolkata

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

Head-to-Head since 2016

Played: 3

KKR: 3

RPS: 0

Kolkata Knight Riders

  • KKR has yet to lose a game against RPS. They are the only side, that RPS has not beaten since their inception last season.
  • KKR have not lost a game while chasing at the Eden Gardens since 2012. They have now won 12 games when they have fielded first.

“We need to execute our plans and hit our areas and try bowl to areas where he (Ben Stokes) is not as strong and hopefully get him out early.”

- Colin de Grandhomme on how KKR plan to keep Ben Stokes in check.

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

Rising Pune Supergiant

  • Pune are the team in form, having won five out of their last six games.
  • In the 16 innings, that MS Dhoni has played against KKR, his average is an astounding 63.67, it is his highest tally against an opposition.

“This year we’ve been able to get over the line in those close games. Last year we were at the end of that. That’s how T20 cricket works sometimes. We’ve been really fortunate there.”

- Steve Smith on Pune’s campaign so far.

Squad: Steve Smith (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ashok Dinda, Mayank Agarwal, Faf du Plessis, 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.