On the back of a heavy defeat against Mumbai Indians in their last match, Kolkata Knight Riders need a positive result against Kings XI Punjab in Indore on Saturday.
The 102-run defeat in the last encounter will take some time to swallow for Kolkata, but they have to quickly regroup against the hosts on Saturday.
With 10 points from 11 games, Dinesh Karthik's side need to win their next three matches to reach the 16-point mark to keep their play-off chances alive. On the other hand, Punjab have 12 points from 10 games so far.
KXIP have enjoyed a positive tournament so far. It is mainly due to their batsmen's exploits; in particular the top-order's destructive batting.
Kl Rahul with 471 runs (from 10 games) has been on terrific form and has delivered consistently at the top of the order. Even in their last match, Rahul's splendid unbeaten 95 went in vain in the 15-run defeat against Rajasthan Royals.
Even Chris Gayle (311 from 7 games) has come to form this season and at times has been brilliant to watch. However, he needs to support his opening partner Rahul more with consistent displays.
Apart from them, others have failed to live up to that level.
Karun Nair (243 runs in 10 games) has performed decently, while Mayank Agarwal (118 runs in 9 matches) has been a biggest disappointment. Manoj Tiwary is another player who has not performed to his full abilities.
Veteran Yuvraj Singh only managed 64 runs in 7 games before being benched by the team management.
Andrew Tye (16 wickets) and Mujeeb ur Rahman (14 wickets) have been really impressive with the ball this season.
On the other hand, consistency has been the biggest worry for KKR.
Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa, Chris lynn need to perform more consistently.
Sunil Narine (13 wickets and 202 runs) has done a reasonable job with both ball and the bat, but he is yet to justify his latest tag a s atop order batsman, while Andre Russell (218 runs) needs to rediscover his early season form.