Third-placed Kings XI Punjab will face Kolkata Knight Riders (fifth on the points table) in a blockbuster clash at the Holkar stadium in Indore on Saturday. Heading into the business end of the tournament both the teams will know the importance of this encounter as a victory will provide a much-needed momentum in the race for playoffs. After beginning season 11 of the IPL on a high, KXIP has floundered after losing a couple of matches in quick succession. Hence, they will be looking to bring back their campaign on track. KKR have also encountered a similar fate, losing three matches out of their last four games. Both the teams feature some of the biggest impact players including the likes of Sunil Narine, Chris Gayle, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravichandran Ashwin, KL Rahul and Mujeeb ur Rahman. Thus the first of the doubleheaders on Saturday promises to be a humdinger. KXIP batting has the tendency of being overreliant on their openers- Chris Gayle and Lokesh Rahul. While the duo have delivered consistently by providing good starts, the middle order continues to look wobbly and this one area which oppositions teams will look to target. Yuvraj Singh, Aaron Finch and Mayank Agarwal are yet to make their presence felt in the tournament. For Kolkata, the bowling has been a big headache for skipper Dinesh Karthik. In their last encounter against Mumbai Indians, most of the KKR bowlers gave away runs at more than eight runs per over and this saw MI amass a total of more than 200. Similarly, in the previous encounter against KXIP, Gayle and Rahul had taken the attack to the bowlers and scored more than a 100 runs within 10 overs. Spinners were supposed to be KKR's trump card but chinaman Kuldeep Yadav and leg-spinner Piyush Chawla have also been on the expensive side adding to the worry. The contest between Chris Gayle and Sunil Narine will be the one to watch out for. While in head to head records KKR hold the edge with 14 wins out of 22 matches, the game in Indore will be difficult to watch out for. SQUADS: Kolkata Knight Riders: Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Chris Lynn, Prasidh Krishna, Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa, Kuldeep Singh Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Nitish Rana, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Shivam Mavi, Mitchell Johnson, Shubman Gill, Vinay Kumar, Rinku Singh, Cameron Delport, Javon Searless, Apoorv Vijay Wankhade, Ishank Jaggi Kings XI Punjab: Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin (Captain), Yuvraj Singh, Karun Nair, Lokesh Rahul (WK), Chris Gayle, David Miller, Aaron Finch, Marcus Stoinis, Mayank Agarwal, Ankit Rajpoot, Manoj Tiwary, Mohit Sharma, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Barinder Sran, Andrew Tye, Akshdeep Nath, Ben Dwarshuis, Pardeep Sahu, Mayank Dagar, Manzoor Dar.
