| Scores | Upcoming | Results |
Kolkata: With their chances of qualifying for the knockout stage hanging by a thread, Gautam Gambhir and his men must believe they can do the 'impossible'.
For Kolkata Knight Riders, it doesn't matter if the world says 'no', for that is the only possibility that peeps out for the defending champions after a disastrous campaign. With their chances of qualifying for the knockout stage hanging by a thread, Gautam Gambhir and his men must believe they can do the 'impossible'. The must-win run begins at the Eden Gardens on Friday with a match against the Rajasthan Royals.
Ironically, on paper KKR still look the better team with power hitters at the top and an attack that is incisive and has variety. But, then, cricket matches are not won on potential but performances, and that is nicely reflected in the relative standings as Season Six of the world's richest T20 league hurtles towards its business end.
While KKR languishes near the bottom of the points table, the Royals are well positioned at No.3 with six wins from nine matches. They come here in the afterglow of a victory over second-placed Royal Challengers Bangalore, while KKR get only a day to recover from Wednesday night's loss in Raipur against fellow-strugglers Delhi Daredevils. Worse, two recent losses here in the last fortnight would have done serious damage to that aura of invincibility the Knights used to carry into the Eden Gardens.
But, then, there is also a lot around KKR that can reinforce belief in themselves as they prepare to fight with their backs to the wall.
The Knights have hardly been outplayed and five of the seven matches they lost could have gone either way.
Teams from:
Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (captain), Manvinder Bisla (wk), Brendon McCullum (wk), Brad Haddin (wk), Brett Lee, Debabrata Das, Eoin Morgan, Iqbal Abdulla, Jacques Kallis, James Pattinson, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Laxmi Shukla, Manoj Tiwary, Pradeep Sangwan, Rajat Bhatia, Ryan ten Doeschate, Sarabjit Ladda, Shakib Al Hasan, Shami Ahmed, Sunil Narine, Yusuf Pathan, Ryan McLaren, Sachithra Senanayake, Sumit Narwal
Rajasthan Royals: Rahul Dravid (captain), Kushal Janith Perera (wk), Ajinkya Rahane, Ajit Chandila, Ankeet Chavan, Ashok Menaria, Brad Hodge, Brad Hogg, Kevon Cooper, S Sreesanth, Shane Watson, Shaun Tait, Shreevats Goswami, Siddharth Trivedi, Stuart Binny, Dishant Yagnik (wk), Harmeet Singh, Owais Shah, Samuel Badree, James Faulkner, Fidel Edwards, Pravin Tambe, Amit Singh, Sanju Samson (wk), Sachin Baby, Rahul Shukla, Vikramjeet Malik, Kumar Boresa
Match facts
Friday May 3, 2013 (day/night)
Start time 20:00 local (1430 GMT)
