When Kolkata Knight Riders met SunRisers Hyderabad about a month ago, they were in the midst of a five-match losing streak. Shreyas Iyer was “drained” after the game and attributed the defeat to a “bad day with the ball.” He had no idea how many unpleasant days were ahead of him, the likes of which would derail his team’s great start to the season.

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This time, though, it is SRH who are in a similar situation. If KKR defeats them for the fifth time in a row on Saturday (May 14), it will be a pleasant little retribution. But there is also a lot riding on the outcome of this game.

Given their low point totals and negative Net Run Rates, both teams appear to have very little chance of making the Playoffs. Delhi Capitals, on the other hand, appear to be in a much better position, with an NRR of +0.210.

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However, a win for either KKR or SRH will not harm their remaining campaigns. KKR, in particular, will see it as an opportunity to build on their massive triumph against Mumbai Indians in the last match, but they will have their job cut out for them without Pat Cummins, who has returned home with a minor hip ailment.

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There’s also the matter of Brendon McCullum accepting the England coaching job in the middle of KKR’s season, which means there’s already an air of upheaval in the camp, and how the squad reacts to the news will be fascinating to see. It will be interesting to see if SRH can turn their season around.

Likely XIs

Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (capt), Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Sam Billings (wk), Andre Russell, Umesh Yadav/Shivam Mavi, Sunil Narine, Tim Southee, Varun Chakravarthy

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson (capt), Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Shashank Singh, Washington Sundar/J Suchith, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Marco Jansen/Fazalhaq Farooqi/Romario Shepherd, Umran Malik, T Natarajan/Kartik Tyagi