Sunrisers Hyderabad will want to bounce back after their heavy defeat to the Chennai Super Kings, but come up against a Kings XI Punjab side desperate for a win to keep their playoff hopes in IPL 2013 alive.
The game on Saturday in Mohali will see two sides that have punched above their weight on more than a few occasions in IPL 2013.
The Sunrisers are currently in fifth with seven wins in 12 matches, while Kings XI need to win every single one of their remaining four games, having managed five victories in 12.
Home advantage will be the key for Kings XI, but Sunrisers team mentor VVS Laxman is confident of his side coming away with two points at the end of 40 overs.
"We've lost some close games away," Laxman told reporters. "We won two good ones in Pune and Delhi. In Chennai (MS) Dhoni played that fantastic knock and took the game away from us. In Jaipur it was Shane Watson who did so.
"In Bangalore we were outdone by Virat's (Kohli) innings. Besides the individual brilliance, we were in control of the game. So, overall we're quite pleased with the way we have travelled and we haven't underperformed as such. The exceptions were the game in Kolkata where we didn't play to our potential."
The Sunrisers were disappointing in their last game, giving away over 200 runs to CSK, before never really making a fist if the run chase to hand the table toppers a massive 77-run win. Laxman is keen to see his side put behind the heavy loss and find a way past Kings XI.
"You hurt when you lose a game like that (loss to CSK by 77 runs) and we did too," he said. "We were really disappointed to lose so heavily against CSK. But it's important to learn and move forward. But still, whichever team we play against, knows the strength of our bowling and respect our attack.
"But we would love to do much better as a batting unit and especially for our experienced batsmen like (Kumar) Sangakkara and (Cameron) White to show some form, which they haven't so far. The remaining five league games are very important in terms of the tournament and if they get some runs we will be able to post huge totals."
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