Deflated after a crushing defeat against Mumbai Indians in the previous encounter, Kolkata Knight Riders will be aiming to pick up pieces when they face Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League in Indore on Saturday.

It is not easy to recover quickly if the margin of defeat is as huge as 102 runs but KKR do not have the luxury of slipping further against a team that has one of the most impressive bowling line-ups in this edition of the league.

With 10 points from 11 games, Saturday’s game is a must-win encounter for Dinesh Karthik and his men if they want to keep their playoff chances alive.

For Kings XI Punjab, the game against Rajasthan Royals turned out to be a proverbial banana peel as they lost by 15 runs chasing a modest target of 159.

The defeat led to unverified reports of rift between franchise co-owner Preity Zinta and Director of Cricket Virender Sehwag, something that the actor denied.

With 12 points from 10 games, KXIP are in a tricky situation. A win will take them closer to playoffs but a defeat will mean that Mumbai Indians will be breathing down their neck.

For KXIP, KL Rahul with 471 runs from 10 games has had a fabulous season so far, while Chirs Gayle (311 from seven games) has also been in imperious form in some of the matches. However the trouble has been lack of contribution from other batsmen in the team.

KKR on the other hand has suffered due to some bizarre team selection with the clear indication that the management didn’t get it right while zeroing in on domestic talent. KKR will hope that both Shubman Gill and Shivam Mavi, who are important in their scheme of things get fit for tomorrow’s game.

Head-to-head

Matches: 23

Kolkata Knight Riders won: 14

Kings XI Punjab won: 9

Stats and trivia

  • Two Kings XI Punjab bowlers have taken four or more wickets in a match in IPL 2018 – the most by any team. 
  • KL Rahul’s 95 against Rajasthan Royals was the highest unbeaten score by an opening batsman in an unsuccessful chase in the IPL.
  • KL Rahul faced 70 balls in that knock of 95*, which is the third most by any batsman in an IPL match. Brendon McCullum (in 2008) Manish Pandey (in 2009) had each faced 73 balls.
  • The 102-run margin by which Mumbai Indians beat Kolkata Knight Riders was the biggest ever win in IPL 2018. This is also the biggest ever defeat for Kolkata Knight Riders.

Quotes

“Yes I admit that we rely heavily on Chris Gayle and KL Rahul, but that is the case with almost every team.” 

— Brad Hodge, KXIP head coach

“...there are three games and we will take one game at a time. So if we win the games I know we have a great chance of getting to the playoffs.”

— Dinesh Karthik, KKR captain

Squads

Kolkata Knight Riders: Dinesh Karthik (c), Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa, Kuldeep Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Shivam Mavi, Mitchell Johnson, Shubman Gill, R. Vinay Kumar, Rinku Singh, Cameron Delport, Javon Searless, Apoorv Wankhade, Ishank Jaggi, Tom Curran.

Kings XI Punjab: Ravichandran Ashwin (c), Chris Gayle, Aaron Finch, KL Rahul, Karun Nair, Mohit Sharma, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Barinder Sran, David Miller, Andrew Tye, Ankit Rajpoot, Axar Patel, Akshdeep Nath, Mayank Agarwal, Manoj Tiwary, Yuvraj Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Mayank Dagar.