kolkata even a week back kolkata knight riders coach jacques kallis and skipper dinesh karthik had described their teams sloppy show as mere blip and put up a brave face pointing out that they still had their fate in their own handsipl schedule ipl points tablekkr however have not only failed to turn their campaign around but six losses on the trot have left their chances of making the playoffs hanging by a thread nowluckily for them the 12th season of ipl has been so topsyturvy that with only 11 matches to be played in the league phase none of the eight teams have so far qualified for the playoffs and more interestingly no team has been eliminated as wellin the given situation kkr will have their backs to the wall when they take on mumbai indians at the eden gardens here in their last home match of the season on sundayhistory and form both suggest that mi will start as favourites the two teams have faced each other 23 times in ipl history with mumbai coming out on top in 18 matches due to a lopsided scheduling this will be the first meeting between the two teams this season with mi comfortably placed at second spot on the table with 14 points from 11 matcheskkr on the other hand have only eight points from 11 matches even if they win their remaining three games including the return leg match in mumbai there is no guarantee that they will make the cut for lastfour stage much will depend on how the other teams fare in their remaining matchesit will be a big challenge for karthik to lift the morale of the side knowing fully well that another loss would knock them out of contentionthe wicketkeeperbatsman led from the front with an unbeaten 97 in kkrs last match against rajasthan royals but his solo effort was not enough and the royals snatched an unlikely victorykkr have only themselves to blame for their plight as they could not put it across the two bottomplaced teams rcb and rr at home the fact that kkr have lost four of the six matches they have played at home so far this season reflects poorly on the team management which has failed to milk the home conditions the visiting teams in fact have read the eden pitch better and walked way victorious much to the dismay of kkr supportersincidentally eden gardens has been a happy hunting ground for mi who have won two of their three ipl titles 2013 2015 here their skipper rohit sharma too loves the venue where he has scored centuries in all three formats of the gamemi also have the best bowling arsenal at their disposal in jasprit bumrah and lasith malinga they have two of the best death bowlers in limitedovers cricket and there is none better than hardik pandya and kieron pollard when it comes to closing out games even mis spin duo of rahul chahar and