Three to go, two down! The reigning champions had not won two straight games this season until Sunday, when the Kolkata Knight Riders stopped the Rajasthan Royals just one run short of their 206-run total at the Eden Gardens. To have a chance of qualifying for the playoffs, the Knights must now win their last three games.

The last league game played at home

They play the Chennai Super Kings on Wednesday, which will be KKR’s last home league game. When asked how the players maintain composure in the face of a difficult assignment, head coach Chandrakant Pandit said, “More than anything else, we know the ability of every individual, and [it falls upon] the mentors and coaches to make sure that the players just believe in themselves.” “It’s about keeping up the momentum that the team has been playing well for the past couple of games.”

CSK is at the bottom of the league standings after its dreams of qualifying were dashed. There is sufficient evidence to imply that the five-time champs are everything from weaklings, despite their pitiful stance. After the tight shave on Saturday, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, who are presently in the top two, can undoubtedly attest to it.

Pandit Chandrakant Pandit Chandrakant

Spin could be important.
In a different setting, today’s match may have shown a thrilling match between two excellent spinners, but when the two sides faced off in Chennai about a month ago, KKR emerged victorious with a resounding win. The most seasoned member of the CSK spin trio, Ravichandran Ashwin, has now lost favor and missed the past three games. Here, in circumstances that are favorable to spinners, will he return and join Ravindra Jadeja and Noor Ahmad?

Naturally, KKR excels at spin, as Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy remain the “deadly duo.” If it weren’t for Riyan Parag going crazy and smashing five sixes in an over, Moeen Ali would have ended with fantastic stats in the last match, so the Knights may want to stick with her. Moeen is also a skilled batsman.

Andre Russell’s “one-man-army” performance was the most promising of the Knights’ many good takeaways from Sunday’s game. Rinku Singh is learning how to finish, and captain Ajinkya Rahane is “the calm” in the middle of chaos, but 20-year-old Angkrish Raghuvanshi is showing a lot of promise.

CSK is highlighting one of the youthful talents that are the buzz of the town. Ayush Mhatre, a 17-year-old Mumbai boy, is heading here after scoring 94 runs off just 48 balls in Saturday’s two-run defeat to RCB. In the previous match, Jadeja smashed an undefeated 77 and Sam Curran an 88.

Practice is missed by Dhoni.
CSK and his horde of supporters, many of whom will be at the stadium to paint the terraces yellow, will be excited to see MS Dhoni return to his former form, even if only momentarily, since he missed both of these practice days. CSK bowling coach Eric Simmons said that Dhoni will play today, saying, “MS knows where he is in terms of his preparations; he always works very hard at the beginning of the tournament and then allows himself to taper off because he gets himself in a space where he’s ready.”