Their fate hanging in balance, a loss in the penultimate league round match may virtually sound the death knell for one of the two teams.
Former India players Venkatesh Prasad and Sunil Joshi will make a surprise return to on-field action, in the fourth edition of the Karnataka Premier League (KPL) Twenty20 tournament, to be played in August-September.
Unchallenged by Sri Lanka so far, India would look to keep the foot on the pedal in their pursuit for a series whitewash when the two teams face off in the fourth and penultimate cricket One-dayer at Eden Gardens on Thursday.
Aruneel Sadadekar/Rediff.com picks his best eleven on performances from the first half of the tournament.
Delhi Daredevils face a herculean task to revive their IPL campaign when they clash with Kolkata Knight Riders
Young Karun Nair completed a hat-trick of first-class centuries in his debut season as Karnataka seized control of their Ranji Trophy semi-final against hosts Punjab, taking an 81-run first innings lead on the third day, in Mohali, on Monday. In reply to Punjab's first innings total of 270, the visitors ended the third day's play on 351 for 5, with Nair unbeaten on a career best score of 107 in company of comeback man Amit Verma, who struck an unbeaten 65.
Table-toppers Kolkata Knight Riders and a transformed Kings XI Punjab cross swords in an Indian Premier League contest in which big-hitting Jamaicans Andre Russell and Chris Gayle will be up against each other in Kolkata on Saturday.
Sunrisers Hyderabad produced a clinical performance to seal their place in the Qualifier 2 as they crushed the hopes of two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders with a comfortable 22 runs win in the IPL Eliminator.
Even in his wildest dreams Pawan Negi may not have thought he would take a five-for on a stage like the Champions League T20 final. So, naturally, after that stellar effort against Kolkata Knight Riders, he was ecstatic. He flummoxed the likes of Robin Uthappa, Jacques Kallis and Ryan ten Doeschate with his flight and guile on the way to a memorable spell in only his second match in the tournament as Chennai Super Kings beat Kolkata Knight Riders by eight wickets.
A round-up of all the Ranji Trophy matches played on Saturday
Delhi Capitals advisor Sourav Ganguly described Shikhar Dhawan as one of the best opening batsmen in the world while revealing that his franchise was "desperate" to rope in the left-hander after he left Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Supremely confident on home turf, defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders will look to continue their forward march when they face an inconsistent Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League T20 cricket tournament at Eden Gardens, in Kolkata on Thursday.
Kolkata Knight Riders are back in familiar home conditions but can ill-afford to take Kings XI Punjab lightly, who are showing signs of improvement under a newly-appointed skipper, when the two teams clash in Kolkata, on Wednesday.
India Blue reached the Duleep Trophy final on the basis of a massive first innings lead, completing a comprehensive performance against India Green even as the game ended in a draw in Greater Noida on Wednesday. There was only one team going into the final against India Red after India Blue took a huge 470-run first innings lead yesterday by dismissing the Green team for 237. India Blue had amassed 707
Riding on Karun Nair's record innings of 328 and a magnificent all-round performance from captain R Vinay Kumar, Karnataka crushed Tamil Nadu by an innings and 217 runs to successfully defend their Ranji Trophy title.
You do wonder why this is so, especially because top Indian players earn significantly higher amounts than their international counterparts with similar or greater ability. Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji identify the Most Valuable Players in the IPL so far.
Sunil Narine and Chris Lynn ripped apart the Rajasthan Royals bowlers to fire Kolkata Knight Riders to an emphatic eight-wicket victory in the Indian Premier League in Jaipur on Sunday.
Riding on Baba Aparajith's splendid century, South Zone crushed a hapless Central Zone by 116 runs with 13.3 overs to storm into the Deodhar Trophy semi-finals at the Wankhede Stadium, in Mumbai, on Saturday.
When the Royal Challengers captain got to 37 during his innings of 52, he became the Indian batsman with most runs in Twenty20 (International and domestic) cricket in a calendar year.
Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers continued their sparkling show with the bat to guide Royal Challengers Bangalore to a commanding nine-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders and keep their play-off hopes alive in the ninth edition of the Indian Premier League, in Kolkata, on Monday.
Sunrisers Hyderabad stand in the way of two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders, who would be looking to bring their campaign back on track at home during an Indian Premier League T20 cricket clash, in Kolkata, on Saturday.
Rajneesh Gupta presents all the important numbers after the third week of IPL 2020.
Shane Watson smashed an unbeaten century and then bagged two wickets as Rajasthan Royals outplayed defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders by nine runs to seal a play-offs berth in the IPL tournament in Mumbai on Saturday.
Some teams have completely overhauled their squads. Others retained their core at the IPL Players Auction.
Rajneesh Gupta lists some amazing coincidences in cricket -- a feature guaranteed to amuse you in these anxious times.
Deepak Chahar's heroics (four wickets in an over) went in vain as Rajasthan went down by 1 run
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji present Rediff.com's Most Valuable Players ratings after the league phase in IPL 10.
Tail-ender Javed Khan, batting with a finger injury, saved Mumbai from following-on while chasing Railways' first innings score of 242 in the rain-truncated Ranji Trophy match, in Delhi, on Wednesday. A summary of the final day's play of the league matches around the country.
Delhi Daredevils' hopes of reaching the play-offs have become slender after five losses from seven matches but their batsman Sanju Samson today said that his side need to keep going and play with a positive mindset in the remainder of the Indian Premier League.
A summary of the fourth day's play in the Ranji Trophy quarter-finals.
The Ranji Trophy Group A match between Mumbai and Jammu and Kashmir was evenly poised at the end of the third day's play, with the visitors finishing on 58 for 1, chasing a modest target of 237 on a wearing track at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai. A summary of Tuesday's action in the tournament at various venues across the country.
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji identify the Most Valuable Players in the IPL at the end of Match 59.
One of Australia's finest ever captain Ian Chappell never ever believed that a professional cricket team needs a specialist coach. "An international 'coach' is something the Australian team travels in around England," is one of Chappell's iconic pun-intended quote on what he exactly thought about cricket coaches. Back in India though, coaching senior teams - from international to IPL is a well-paid job, not discounting the glamour which is associated with it. But reality bites when one climbs down -- just a notch below at the first-class level where it's not always a bed of roses for all those plying their trade.
Kolkata Knight Riders will be aiming to exploit Sunrisers Hyderabad's recent run of poor form
Promising Delhi batsman Unmukt Chand will lead India 'A' in three one-day matches against a visiting New Zealand 'A', while Abhishek Nayar will captain the side for the three-day and four-day games in the series, starting in Visakhapatnam on August 31. Chand has also been named for three-day and four-day games.
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji identify the 60 Most Valuable Players in the IPL so far.
Mumbai Indians will be fretting over their team combination as they take on a marauding Kolkata Knight Riders in an Indian Premier League encounter, in Mumbai, on Sunday.
A miffed Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir slammed his team after a stunning batting collapse which resulted in their 10-run loss to Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League in Ahmedabad.
Spinner Kuldeep Yadav starred with an impressive four-wicket spell as he set up Kolkata Knight Riders to a comfortable six-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals in their Indian Premier League match in Kolkata, on Tuesday.
