Smarting from successive defeats, an under-pressure Kolkata Knight Riders will look to regain their momentum and remain in the hunt for the knockout stage when they clash with laggards Royal Challengers Bangalore in an IPl encounter here on Sunday.
KKR need two wins out of the remaining three matches to seal their berth in the play-off.
The two-time champions are placed second in the table with 14 points out of 11 matches, followed by RPS and Sunrisers at 14 and 13 points.
During their last meeting, KKR had handed out a 82-run defeat to RCB after bowling them out for 49.
KKR so far has been cashing in on Sunil Narine's hit- and-miss experiment at the top. When Narine gets going, there is no stopping them as more often than not Gambhir and Robin Uthappa have capitalised on the starts.
But in the event of a failure of the trio, the likes of Yusuf Pathan must take up responsibility. Pandey have been in good form but Sheldon Jackson has not yet delivered and Jharkhand's Ishank Jaggi might just get a look-in.
RCB, on the other hand, have been the biggest disappointment of this year's IPl. They have been bowled out four times this season and are placed at bottom of the table with five points in 12 matches.
With their confidence torn to shreds, it will be a big task for skipper Virat Kohli to instill some self-belief in the team, who would be playing for pride. The only silver lining for RCB has been the performance of their two leg-spinners spinners — Samuel Badree (9 wickets) and Yuzvendra Chahal (13 wickets). However their pacers have been far from impressive with Sreenath Arvind (5), Adam Milne (3) and Aniket Choudhary (4) going for a lot of runs.