Kolkata, May 23 (IANS) Kolkata Knight Riders and Delhi Capitals will enter Sunday’s IPL 2026 league-stage finale at Eden Gardens knowing their playoff hopes are hanging by a thread. While both teams are still mathematically alive in the race for the final knockout berth, qualification scenarios remain heavily dependent on results elsewhere.

The key equation centres around Punjab Kings’ clash against the already-eliminated Lucknow Super Giants on Saturday. A Punjab victory would officially end Delhi’s campaign and leave KKR requiring a massive win over DC to overcome Punjab’s superior net run-rate. Even a narrow PBKS victory would mean Kolkata need a huge margin of victory to stay in contention.

Both teams will also hope for Mumbai Indians to defeat Rajasthan Royals in the first game on Sunday, the penultimate match of the league stage, with RR capable of sealing qualification by reaching 16 points.

Delhi’s inconsistent campaign has largely revolved around the performances of KL Rahul, who has scored 533 runs at a strike rate above 171. The return of David Miller has strengthened the middle order, but underwhelming bowling displays from Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav have hurt DC throughout the season.

KKR, meanwhile, have staged a strong comeback after an injury-hit start disrupted their bowling unit. Six wins in their last seven matches have revived Kolkata’s hopes and restored momentum heading into the final league fixture.

When: Sunday, May 24, 7:30 IST

Where: Eden Gardens, Kolkata

Where to watch: The KKR vs DC match will be broadcast on Star Sports channels, with JioHotstar live-streaming the game.

Squads:

Kolkata Knight Riders: Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane (c), Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell, Angkrish Raghuvanshi (wk), Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Umran Malik, Varun Chakaravarthy, Cameron Green, Finn Allen, Matheesha Pathirana, Kartik Tyagi, Rahul Tripathi, Tim Seifert, Tejasvi Dahiya, Sarthak Ranjan, Rachin Ravindra, Akash Deep, Prashant Solanki, Daksh Kamra

Delhi Capitals: Axar Patel (captain), KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav, Karun Nair, David Miller, Pathum Nissanka, Tristan Stubbs, Sameer Rizvi, Nitish Rana, T. Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar, Ashutosh Sharma, Dushmantha Chameera, Lungi Ngidi, Vipraj Nigam, Sahil Parakh, Prithvi Shaw, Abishek Porel, Ajay Mandal, Tripurana Vijay, Madhav Tiwari, Auqib Nabi Dar, Mitchell Starc, Kyle Jamieson, and Rehan Ahmed

–IANS

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