A play-offs spot having sealed after a resounding victory in their previous match, Kolkata Knight Riders would aim for a top-two finish with a win when they take on an inconsistent Kings XI Punjab in an IPl match here on Tuesday.
KKR bounced back from their back-to-back defeats when they registered an easy six-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore in Bengaluru on Sunday.
The Gautam Gambhir-led side are now at second spot in the league table with 16 points from 12 matches with the help of eight wins and they would look to consolidate their position with a win over Kings XI, who suffered a six-wicket defeat to Gujarat lions on Sunday.
Chasing a modest 159 for victory on Sunday, KKR made it easy, racing to 105 for no loss in just six overs, for a record IPl powerplay total. They achieved the target with 29 balls to spare on the back of Sunil Narine's (54 off 17 balls) record joint fastest IPl fifty — from 15 balls — and an equally aggressive knock from Chris lynn (50 off 22 balls).
Narine has come out as an opener in nine matches out of KKR's 12 so far and he has scored 194 runs.
Umesh Yadav, Chris Woakes and Narine will be the main bowlers on whom KKR will mainly bank upon with Ankit Rajpoot and Piyush Chawla also having the ability to support them.
Glenn Maxwell-led KXIP, on the other hand, have a slender chance to make it to the play-offs as they have only five wins from 11 matches and are placed at the fifth spot with 10 points.
They now need to win all their remaining three matches if they have to have any chance of making it to the knock-out stage.
KXIP's South African import Hashim Amla has been their main batsmen with 400-plus runs, which includes two centuries — against Mumbai Indians and Gujarat lions.