Sunil Narine during a practice session, in Pune, on Friday. (PTI)

Pune: The Knight Riders are on a roll and the fans have started talking of a ‘final hurrah’ on May 27.

Already in the playoffs, Gautam Gambhir and Co. need to win against Pune Warriors India, here, on Saturday, for a top-two finish. And they have every chance of doing that. After all, the Warriors are one of the whipping boys of the IPL-V.

But if you think the Knights are complacent and are thinking of extending their Pune stay till Tuesday — the top two square off at the Sahara Subrata Roy Cricket Stadium on that day — then you are wrong.

On an unusually hot Friday evening the visitors had a gruelling three-hour practice session and there was hardly any sign of complacency.

Though a few players like Manoj Tiwary, Jacques Kallis and Brett Lee did not attend the optional practice session, the rest looked focussed. Tiwary is running slight fever, but is expected to be fit for the clash.

“We are not taking Pune lightly,” Bayliss said at the media conference. “As a team, we are doing well and would love to have a top-two finish. Throughout the tournament we have taken one match at a time… Saturday will be no different,” the venerable Australian coach said.

Unlike the past, when the Knights had an abysmally poor away record, this time, they have been fantastic. On the road, they have suffered only one loss — against Rajasthan Royals on April 8. That itself speaks how tough this team has become mentally under Bayliss.

A very balanced outfit, the Knights top-order has delivered in almost all the matches. And at the death, the bowling also did not let the team down.

Take for example, Wednesday’s match against the formidable Mumbai Indians. Defending a paltry 140, the Knights were brilliant on the field and recorded a comprehensive 32-run victory.

If Lakshmipathi Balaji was at his miserly best, mystery spinner Sunil Narine and ‘Jack of all trades’ Kallis were the principal wicket-takers.

The match gives a chance to Sourav Ganguly and his band of warriors to avenge their May 5 loss. On that Saturday afternoon, the Eden was a divided house with one group backing the Gambhirs, while the other rooting for the ‘son of the soil’. Sourav gave a good account of himself even though his team suffered a seven-run defeat.

At the media conference Sourav was upbeat about his team’s chances and talked about taking home something from this IPL. “It would be nice to end the tournament with a win,” he said.

Asked whether the Warriors have enough ammunition to get the better of a team, which is high on confidence, Sourav said: “Why not? In T20, anything can happen. They might have a few impressive wins under their belt, but nobody in invincible... We have every chance of pulling it off tomorrow.”

Sourav may talk about a big upset, but current form suggets the Warriors are not in the ‘zone’. While the captain himself and Robin Uthappa drew a lot of flak for wasting too many deliveries, the others have not managed to chip in when their turns came.

Bad news for the Pune side is their in-form player Steven Smith is down with flu and the team management is not yet sure whether he would be fit to play on Saturday. The newly-married Michael Clarke came back on Friday night to bolster the batting.

Sourav and the rest had a long practice session with the captain himself spending more than an hour at the nets at the Pune Club. His fans will definitely hope some fireworks when the real battle is played on Saturday night.

Teams

Kolkata Knight Riders (likely): Gautam Gambhir (captain), Brendon McCullum, Jacques Kallis, Manoj Tiwary, Shakib-al Hasan, Yusuf Pathan, Debabrata Das, Rajat Bhatia, Sunil Narine, Lakshmipathi Balaji and Iqbal Abdulla.

Pune Warriors (likely): Sourav Ganguly (captain), Michael Clarke, Jesse Ryder, Robin Uthappa, Anustup Majumdar, Callum Ferguson, Angelo Mathews, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Murali Karthik, Rahul Sharma and Ashish Nehra.