KKR hope to revive campaign against beleaguered Royals

Mumbai: A desperate Kolkata Knight Riders will look to bring their campaign back on track after a hattrick of defeats when they face a beleaguered Rajasthan Royals in their IPL clash here on Saturday.

Big on paper, KKR, led by England's World Cup winning skipper Eoin Morgan, have so far failed to come together as a unit and slipped to sixth in the table after starting the tournament on a high against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Facing bottom-placed Rajasthan Royals, who have been the most inconsistent team so far in the season, KKR will be desperate for a turnaround.

The rise of Pat Cummins as a batsman in their 18-run defeat to CSK will provide a big boost but it can't paper over the failure of their star batsmen, who have floundered even while chasing even modest target. The seamers too have leaked runs in the death overs.

Having struggled on Chepauk's slow surface, KKR had hoped to return to winning ways at the Wankhede but Faf du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad took their attack to the cleaners and amassed a massive 220 for 3 in their previous match.

If that was not all, their famed top-five, including Shubman Gill and Morgan, surrendered inside the Powerplay.

Andre Russell and Dinesh Karthik then revived the chase before Cummins produced some sensational powerhitting, slamming a 34-ball 66 not out before running out of partners as KKR finished on 202 after being 31/5 in 5.2 overs.

"Everyone's pumped. I am sure if we get a win or two and we will be on our way and flying. I think there's a feeling that we can win from basically anywhere," Cummins had said.