Knight Riders aim for top position

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will look to pull out all stops in their bid to rubber-stamp a play-off spot when they take on already-qualified Mumbai Indians (MI) in their last Indian Premier League (IPL) match the before play-offs at the Eden Gardens later in the day.

Gautam Gambhir’s men have to be at their best in order to topple an all-round Mumbai team who are at the top of the points table. KKR (second in the points table) have one foot in the knockout stages.

But with Punjab (fifth in the points table with 14 points from 13 matches) making a strong case for themselves now after two back-to-back wins, coupled with Sunrisers Hyderabad (fourth in the table with 15 points from 13 ties) and Rising Pune Supergiant (third with 16 in their kitty from 12 fixtures) also in the fray, they must ensure the berth with a win.

Although the Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai lost to in-form Kings XI Punjab, which also beat KKR in the latter last’s game, on Thursday chasing a mammoth total of 231, it was efforts from Lendl Simmons (59), Parthiv Patel (38), Keiron Pollard (50 not out) and Hardik Pandya (30) that got them within seven runs of the stiff target.

KKR, on the other hand, failed to chase down a modest 168 despite Chris Lynn’s fireworks with the bat (52-ball 84) against Punjab in their previous outing. None of the batters besides Lynn could get runs with Sunil Narine and Manish Pandey managing 18 which was the second highest score. Yusuf Pathan’s form has been a worry for the hosts with the experienced campaigner not being among runs for quite some time now. Mumbai have a different picture to paint in this aspect.