The Knight Riders, Champions in 2012 and again in 2014, ended the weekend’s fixtures occupying second position in the qualifying table, after recording their seventh win in 11 matches in 2016, defeating Rising Pune Supergiants by 8-wickets on the D/L method.
The top five positions in the race for the four places in the knockout phase of IPL9 is as congested as ever, but KKR do go into Monday’s contest having played fewer fixtures than any of the other teams in the top four.
Sunrisers Hyderabad head KKR by two points having played one game more, and with a slightly better overall run rate. An advantage that could be negated, should Kolkata beat RCB by a decent margin at Eden Gardens.
RCB go into the game knowing that their overwhelming success against the Gujarat Lions, who have been so impressive in their IPL debut season, on Saturday, when they ran up a massive 248-3 after being put into bat, has given them some fresh hope that they might yet finish in the top four.
The final winning margin of 144 runs against the Lions, means that RCB now have the best overall run rate of any of the eight sides in the IPL. Effectively giving them an extra point. However, they are still down in sixth position with 19 points from 11 fixtures, leaving them four points behind the fourth places Lions, but with a game in hand.
Defeat in Monday’s game would not be terminal for RCB’s hopes of being able to challenge for a first ever IPL title, but it would certainly leave them on the brink of elimination, and needing an unlikely sequence of results in the remaining fixtures to qualify for the post-season eliminator contest.