Durban, May 19: Rajasthan Royals will look to turn the tide in their favour when they take on the revived Kolkata Knight Riders in an Indian Premier League match at the Kingsmead here Wednesday.

Rajasthan, with their 14-run loss to Delhi Daredevils, are fifth with 13 points from 13 matches and must win here to keep themselves in the hunt for a semi-final berth.

Kolkata, who won their first match on Monday, against Chennai Super Kings, after nine straight losses, are already out of the competition but can spoil the party of the other contenders.

For Rajasthan, their batting has been a letdown and overdependence on Yusuf Pathan has not helped the cause. It is time the Rajasthan top-order comprising Graeme Smith, Naman Ojha, Swapnil Asnodkar and Ravindra Jadeja fire.

Johan Botha has come good both with bat and the ball and the same will be expected from him in Wednesday’s game. While Siddharth Trivedi, Munaf Patel, Amit Singh along with skipper Shane Warne and Botha have bowled decent spells, the defending champion’s sloppy fielding has emerged as a big negative, a fact which the team’s director of coaching Darren Berry accepted after the team’s loss to Delhi Daredevils.

"I think our fielding was below par and our execution with the ball towards the end was below par. And our batting was unacceptable," Berry said.

The Knight Riders, on the other hand, have been rejuvenated by skipper Brendon McCullum’s return to form. He along with David Hussey and Brad Hodge make up a strong batting line-up. However, their bowling and fielding have been disappointing. The last time the two teams met, it turned out to be the only match of the tournament so far that went to the super-over. — IANS