Kings XI Punjab face a must-win game against the Delhi Daredevils when the two sides meet in an IPL 2013 game in Dharamsala Thursday.
The fight for the playoffs has been whittled down to just three teams, with KKR losing their chances after their loss to the Pune Warriors. Mumbai Indians, CSK and Rajasthan Royals have already qualified.
Kings XI need to win their final two matches and hope that RCB and Sunrisers Hyderabad lose their remaining games to have any chance of making the playoffs.
All Kings XI can do is keep their end of the bargain and they will look to do just that with a win over the Daredevils, who will try to avoid the wooden spoon having won just three games in 14.
Daredevils coach Eric Simons blamed the absence of players like Kevin Pietersen and Jesse Ryder as a reason for the side's poor performance in IPL 2013.
"We were in the rough losing the first three games but our players very honestly kept trying," he said. "But at the end of the day, being professionals you need to do the right things at the right time.
"I think we missed KP (Pietersen) and Ryder and this was one of the main reasons (for the underwhelming tournament).
"Even in our first three games a lot of our players were coming from injuries. At that time even Umesh (Yadav) was injured and Mahela (Jayawardene) had a broken finger.
"You need to take into account these things. It is a tough situation but such things are part of the challenge."
The Daredevils find themselves in this poor situation mainly due to their batting failures with the likes of Virender Sehwag and Mahela Jayawardene failing to find any kind of form in the tournament. Only David Warner has shown some signs of life with the bat, but the Australian just hasn't had any support.
"The batsmen have accepted their responsibilities," Simons said. "The bowlers have done fairly well restricting the oppositions to reasonable scores and almost defended 150 odd runs. We have done a decent job in bowling.
"But our problem was that we lost wickets early. We have not got through to the 10th over with one or two top batsmen at the wicket. And, this was basically the problem."
To watch Kings XI vs Daredevils Live Streaming for U.S. viewers, click here.
