Punjab Kings players celebrate during a match at Sharjah International Airport. Twitter photo

An inconsistent Punjab Kings will lock horns with a rejuvenated Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in one of the most intriguing mid-table clashes of the IPL in Dubai on Friday.

Both the teams are fighting hard for the fourth spot in the play-offs. With Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) almost certain to make it for the play-offs, the race for the fourth spot has been heated up by the fierce competition as last three teams are separated by just two points.

Chennai are at the top of the table with 16 points followed by Delhi and Bangalore, who are perched at second and third spots respectively.

Both Chennai and Delhi have 16 points each while Bangalore are two points adrift. Kolkata are in the top four with 10 points as well but they are closely followed by defending champions Mumbai Indians, who are at fifth and have as many points to be followed by Punjab in the sixth place with eight points.

Kolkata will look to consolidate their position in the top-half with a victory against Punjab. At the same, Punjab can also leapfrog both Kolkata and Mumbai, if they can register a big win.

Kolkata have shown a great resurgence since the tournament has been moved to the UAE. They have won three out their four matches.

Kolkata Knight Riders players celebrate after winning the match.

They are brimming with confidence after three wins from four matches. They defeated a rampant Delhi at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium to prove their credentials as of the title contenders.

Kolkata’s opening batsmen Shubmna Gill and Vankatesh Iyer both are in good form and have been giving a good start to their team almost in all the macthes.

While, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan and Rahul Tripathi consolidate their middle-order and Sunil Narine and Dinesh Karthik provide depth in the batting.

Both can hit big shots down the order to spur the run rate. Narine played a 10-ball 21 run cameo against Delhi as he collected 20 runs off Kagiso Rabada’s over to all tilt the game in Kolkata’s over.

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Rana played sensibly to make sure there is no anti-climax end to the game after coming so close to the victory as Delhi had tried t make some in-roads through their bowlers. Karthik struggled with the bat against Delhi on the batting-friendly wicket of Sharjah.

After the match, Karthik revealed that the ball was not coming on the bat and it was easier to score against pacers than spinners.

Karthik’s comments can be an insight for the teams participating in the World Cup in three weeks’ time.

“We are planning to take the game deep and then our shots if needed. But it was not an easy wicket to rotate the strike,” said the wicket-keeper batsman after the match.

“We did not have any plans of hitting Lalit Yadav in particular. In fact, it was actually harder to hit the spinners than the fast bowlers," he added.

Narine and mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy will take care of the spin department while Lockie Ferguson and Tim Southee spearhead the pace battery and will be assisted by Iyer and Sandeep Warrier. Prasidh Krishna is likely to be kept on bench.

For Punjab, it is like a do-or-die clash as they are already two points adrift. Punjab, who are coming into match on the back of a defeat against Mumbai, will to bounce back and keep their hopes alive.

After defending the lowest total of the season against a beleaguered Sunrisers Hyderabad, Punjab failed to chase a paltry total of 137 against Mumbai in Abu Dhabi.

Punjab are facing batting woes as their players are not clicking together. They managed to muster only 125 against Hyderabad also before the bowlers came for the rescue act to steer them to a nail-biting win.

Swashbuckling West Indian batsman Chris Gayle has not clicked in the last two games and is due. They are likely to persist with left-hander in the must-win match.

If Punjab have to remain in contention, they must click as a unit not in parts to stop a confident Kolkata, who have witnessed a turn around in the UAE leg.