(Cricket news) After two huge victories over Mumbai and Bangalore, Kolkata Knight Riders would be hoping to maintain their winning momentum as these few remaining matches will be crucial for their playoff credentials. On the other hand, Delhi Capitals will be vying for the top two spot as they are virtually guaranteed of a playoff position.

KKR may lose their talisman Andre Russell for this crucial encounter, last match against CSK Russell heard something pop in his hamstring and subsequently hobbled out of the field, this may be huge blow to the KKR side as he not only brings his explosive batting skills but this season he has been more effective with the ball picking up 11 wickets for his side. KKR need to deal with the DC openers as Prithvi Shaw in last five innings against KKR has scored four half centuries with a strike rate of 140.91. The KKR management will look to their two spinners to provide important breakthroughs, Sunil Narine has dismissed Dhawan twice in 64 balls conceding only 69 runs in the process and last year Varun Chakravarthy wrecked havoc by claiming 5 wickets. The captain himself Eoin Morgan also needs to find his form to provide the right bases to attack in the death overs.

DC will also be without Marcus Stonis who picked up a leg injury against SRH, another concern for the DC management is that also picked an injury in that game and maybe out. DC will breathe a sigh of relief with Russell’s unavailability as the all rounder has an bowling average of 13,4 and batting strike rate of 190.21 in eight innings. All the bowling onus will be on Rababa and Nortje to take wickets up front and in the death overs. Ashwin also might get a game due to the slow and sluggish pitches in Sharjah as he might be key in the middle overs to stop the batsman from scoring runs.

Head to head: KKR 14 – 12 DC, the last time they met DC comfortably chased down 154 runs in 17 overs as they won by 7 wickets.

Pitch and weather report: The relaid Sharjah Stadium pitch has always been a batters paradise but this season the pitches have been on the slower side as it will assist the spinners. The temperature will hover around 38 degrees with zero chances of rain.

Interesting facts:

• DC have won 4 of their last five encounters against KKR
• Shubman Gill has bettered his batting average in the UAE leg and also bettered his boundary from 17 to 22.9%
• Rishabh Pant needs 24 runs to overtake as DC’s highest run scorer
• Sunil Narine claimed his 150 wicket for KKR when he dismissed Rayadu in the last match.
• DC and KKR have been the two most expensive bowling teams at the death this IPL season, conceding 10.38 and 10.22 runs per over respectively

Also read: Iyer's return has allowed us to play ideal line-up: Hopes

Probable XI for KKR:

1 Shubman Gill, 2 Venkatesh Iyer, 3 Rahul Tripathi, 4 Shakib Al Hasan, 5 Nitish Rana, 6 Eoin Morgan (capt), 7 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 8 Sunil Narine, 9 Lockie Ferguson, 10 Prasidh Krishna, 11 Varun Chakravarthy

Probable XI for DC:

1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Shreyas Iyer, 4 Rishabh Pant (capt/wk), 5 Lalit Yadav, 6 Shimron Hetmyer, 7 Axar Patel, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Anrich Nortje, 11 Avesh Khan