Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad look for key points, and a way out of the morass

The Kolkata Knight Riders and the Sunrisers Hyderabad enter their face-off with a difference of only two points on the points table, but they are both in precarious positions. Depending on other results, by the time Sunday's games are done, things might not look pretty at all for the team that loses this game.

Both the teams have soft middle orders. The Sunrisers have chopped and changed positions four and below through the tournament, and those batting slots are still not firmed up. The Knight Riders have the experience there, but the consistency is missing.

That said, both teams have reasons to feel confident. From the Sunrisers' point of view, the Knight Riders are likely to be without Sunil Narine, have a new captain, and are trying to avoid a third straight loss. The Knight Riders know they won the last time these sides met, and like them, the Sunrisers enter the contest on the back of two defeats.

Therefore, it will come down to which team hides their weaknesses better. Apart from the middle-order issues, the performance of the two Indian pace attacks will be important. Neither team is settled, they are both missing momentum, and for the winning team it can be a massive morale-booster.

Manish Pandey hit a half-century for the Sunrisers, but they could score only 142 for the loss of four wickets on the back of impressive spells from Pat Cummins and Varun Chakravarthy. Shubman Gill then struck a 62-ball 70, while Eoin Morgan crunched a 29-ball 42 to seal the Knight Riders' win with two overs to spare.

Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Shubman Gill, 2 Rahul Tripathi, 3 Nitish Rana, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Andre Russell, 6 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 7 Pat Cummins, 8 Lockie Ferguson, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Shivam Mavi

Sunrisers Hyderabad: 1 David Warner (capt), 2 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 3 Manish Pandey, 4 Kane Williamson, 5 Priyam Garg, 6 Vijay Shankar, 7 Rashid Khan, 8 Shahbaz Nadeem, 9 Sandeep Sharma, 10 Khaleel Ahmed, 11 T Natarajan