Kolkata: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), who returned to their home ground after almost a month, will keep their hopes alive when they take on Gujarat Titans, who are trying to make it to the top two, in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match here on Saturday. Under the captaincy of experienced Ajinkya Rahane, KKR has not performed well this year like last year, which has raised questions about the decision to appoint him as captain again.

KKR had to wait until the 7th match (halfway stage) for its first win in the current season. During this time, it failed to create a balanced team combination. KKR won 4 consecutive matches after this but had to face defeat against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) due to Virat Kohli's brilliant century in the last match.

KKR now has 3 matches left and if they win all the matches, they will be able to reach a maximum of 15 points. Despite this, their place in the playoffs will not be assured and for this they will have to go through the equations of Agar-Maghar. Another defeat will end their chances of progressing.

KKR's victory in 4 consecutive matches goes largely to the spin duo of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy, while vice-captain Rinku Singh has also contributed consistently. Chakravarthy could not play against RCB due to a left foot injury, which cost the team dearly. KKR head coach Abhishek Nair has hinted at his return, which is good news for the team. KKR's batting has lacked consistency throughout the season. Questions have also been raised about their batting order.

In contrast, Gujarat, led by Shubman Gill, has had the best performance so far this season. They have 16 points, the same as the top-placed RCB, but are in second place due to their net run rate. The credit for Gujarat's excellent performance goes to their bowlers to a large extent. Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj and Jason Holder have handled the fast bowling department well, while star spinner Rashid Khan has seemingly regained his old magic. Gill and Sai Sudarshan have performed brilliantly in their top order in batting. Sudarshan, who scored the most runs in the tournament last year with 759, has scored 501 runs this time too. He is still only 7 runs behind Heinrich Klaasen, who is at the top of the list of highest run-scorers. He has scored 5 half-centuries in his last 6 innings, including a century. Gill is also in excellent form, while Washington Sundar has played a good role in the middle order. If Gujarat wants to make it to the top two, these key players will have to continue their good performance.