In what will turn out to be a virtual knockout clash to secure the remaining spots in the top-4 positions, Kolkata Knight Riders will host a resurgent Rajasthan Royals in an Indian Premier league match at Eden Gardens on Tuesday.
A loss at Eden on Tuesday will dash the hopes for the losing team to reach the play-off places.
After losing successive games against defending champion Mumbai Indians, KKR returned back to winning ways by securing victory over Kings XI Punjab in a high-score game at Indore.
Opener Sunil Narine and skipper Dinesh Karthik took the charge and produced excellent batting performances to help Kolkata post the fourth highest total of IPl (245/6), before Andre Russell's three-wicket spell restricted their opponents to 214 runs.
While at the verge of being eliminated, Rajasthan Royals bounced back in some style and will go into this game on the back of three consecutive wins.
In their last game against Mumbai Indians, opener Jos Buttler continued his terrific form after Jofra Archer restricted MI for 168/8.
The explosive English wicketkeeper batsman got a new life after he was promoted to open the innings. Since adapting to his new role, the former Mumbai Indian batsman has score five consecutive fifty plus scores. He is currently at fifth position in race for Orange Cap after scoring 509 runs from 12 games. His last five scores of 67, 51, 82, 95*, 94* makes him the most feared batsman currently in IPl.
While, Royals will hope for Buttler to continue his form in the upcoming games, a lot will be expectEd from skipper Ajinkya Rahane and Ben Stokes, who have failed to perform to their abilities this season.
The biggest pick of the season Stokes has managed to compile just 185 runs from 12 innings, whereas, Rahane let his fans down with a string of disappointing knocks.
Adding to that tally, D'Arcy Short and Rahul Tripathi have also failed to live up to that billing.
However in the bowling front, English all-rounder Jofra Archer made his presence felt after scalping 13 wickets from seven games.
But the lack of support from other end has been a cause of worry for the Royals side. Jaydev Unadkat, Ben Stokes, Krishnappa Gowtham and Dhawal Kulkarni have not performed consistently.
On the other hand, Dinesh Karthik-led Kolkata Knight Riders had an inconsistent run in the league so far. They have won six and lost the same number of games so far.
But because of a slightly better net run rate they are placed in the top half with 12 points.
Their batting revolves around skipper Karthik (371 runs) and Chris lynn (325 runs) mainly. Sunil Narine, Robin Uthappa, Nitish Rana and Andre Russell have done well in few instances.
In the bowling section, the spin trio of Sunil Narine, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav have impressed.