At the start of the season, Rising Pune Supergiants appeared to have the complete recipe for success in the Indian Premier League – The MS Dhoni-Stephen Fleming combine, a squad rich in T20 experience and winning start over defending and two-time champions Mumbai Indians. It all went downhill from there and 41 days since that buoyant beginning in Mumbai, Dhoni & Co. find themselves playing their final league game of the season, with only pride at stake.

When the Supergiants take on Kings XI Punjab on Saturday (May 20), it will be a battle to avoid the ‘Wooden Spoon’. With only four wins from 13 matches each, Supergiants and King XI have been out of contention for a playoffs berth for a while now. The game on Saturday (May 21) offers both thesebeleagueredteams an opportunity to avoid the ignominy of finishing last and hope to find a combination to build on in next year’s edition.

Injuries and poor form of the bowlers have been Supergiants’ bane throughout the season. It all started with an injury to Kevin Pietersen, before Faf du Plessis, Mitchell Marsh and Steven Smith, were also ruled out, leaving Supergiants short-staffed. The arrival of Usman Khawaja and George Bailey soothed the effect of losing four key players, but it was the bowling department, and not finding the right combination, that gave Supergiants’ mostly misery and very little success. In the past few games the bowlers have stood tall, with Adam Zampa and Ashok Dinda the pioneers to that effect, but it all came a little too late in the tournament. The hosts, however, will be approaching their final game with a lot of confidence, having recently dented Delhi Daredevils chances of making it to the next round.

For Kings XI Punjab, it was their string of defeats in the first half of the tournament, caused by batting and bowling inconsistencies, that stemmed their progress. David Miller’s poor form led to Murali Vijay taking over the leadership duties, and the team did respond well under his captaincy, but akin to Supergiants’ case, Kings XI’s good performances came too late. Fresh of a Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle hammering, Kings XI will be eager to come up with a performance that can provide them some consolation after a wretched season. The last time they were at this venue, Kings XI had registered a big win against Mumbai Indians and they will be keen to emulate that and end the tournament on a winning note.

Squads:

Rising Pune Supergiants: Ajinkya Rahane, Usman Khawaja, George Bailey, Saurabh Tiwary, MS Dhoni (w/c), Thisara Perera, Irfan Pathan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Adam Zampa, Murugan Ashwin, Ashok Dinda, Albie Morkel, Ishant Sharma, Peter Handscomb, RP Singh, Jaskaran Singh, Ankit Sharma, Scott Boland, Ishwar Pandey, Deepak Chahar, Baba Aparajith, Ankush Bains, Rajat Bhatia

Kings XI Punjab: Hashim Amla, Murali Vijay (c), Wriddhiman Saha (w), Gurkeerat Singh Mann, David Miller, Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, Mohit Sharma, Sandeep Sharma, Anureet Singh, Swapnil Singh, Rishi Dhawan, Kyle Abbott, Pardeep Sahu, Farhaan Behardien, Shardul Thakur, Manan Vohra, Nikhil Naik, Mitchell Johnson, KC Cariappa, Armaan Jaffer