Chennai vs. Sunrisers Hyderabad, IPL: Date, Time, TV, Live Stream and Preview

MS Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings made a winning start to 2015's Indian Premier League with a narrow victory over Delhi and will be looking to maintain their 100 per cent record against the Sunrisers.

However, with David Warner's much-improved side arguably boasting the best pace bowling unit in the competition, this is far from certain.

Let's take a look at how the two teams are shaping up ahead of the fourth match of this year's competition.

Venue: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai

Date: Saturday, Apr. 11, 2015

Start time: 4 p.m. local time/11:30 a.m. BST

Weather: It promises to be a scorcher, according to bbc.co.uk/weather, with temperatures reaching a high of 91 degrees Fahrenheit and few clouds in the sky.

Live stream/TV Info: PCCW (HongKong), Maasranga TV (Bangladesh), Sky NZ (New Zealand), Sky Sports (UK), EMTV (Papua New Guinea), Measat (Malaysia), OSN Network (Middle East), StarHub (Singapore), Super Sports (Sub-Saharan Africa), Geo Super (Pakistan), Carlton Sports Network (Sri Lanka), Sportsnet (Canada), Willow TV (USA), Sony Six and Set Max (India), IMG (Caribbean)

Preview

Although a quick glance at the result might suggest it was business as usual for Chennai against the Daredevils, in reality, they were lucky to pick up the points after posting an under par score of 150.

However, worryingly for Hyderabad, the Super Kings' stellar batting lineup will surely only improve as the tournament progresses.

After finishing third in 2014, the CSK hierarchy decided few changes were needed, although Michael Hussey and Kyle Abbot could prove to be shrewd additions with bat and ball respectively.

Though Chennai's greatest pre-tournament boost was the return from injury of Dwayne Bravo, one of T20 cricket's most effective all-rounders.

Overseeing matters as usual is, of course, MS Dhoni and the veteran's captaincy matchup with David Warner adds an interesting subplot to this tussle. 

The Sunrisers endured a disappointing campaign in 2014, winning only six games and finishing in sixth place overall but some exciting acquisitions suggest they will be much harder to beat this time around.

Kevin Pietersen's decision to relinquish his contract was clearly a blow but Kane Williamson and Eoin Morgan join Warner and the back-to-form Shikhar Dhawan to comprise a powerful-looking batting group.

And run-makers across the league will be having sleepless nights at the prospect of facing a mouth-watering bowling group which includes Dale Steyn, Trent Boult, Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, among others.

But perhaps the most interesting move made by Hyderabad's big cheeses was appointing the controversial figure of Warner as skipper.

The 28-year-old hasn't a lot of top-flight captaincy experience and it would be no surprise if he approaches the role with the same aggression he brings to his batting.

Historically, these two teams have met on four occasions with CSK triumphing three times to the Sunrisers' sole victory.

And their fifth clash is likely to be decided by who comes out on top between Chennai's powerful batting lineup and Hyderabad's penetrative pace attack.

ODI Form Lines (most recent first)

Chennai: WWWWNW

Hyderabad: LWWLLL

Squads

Chennai (from): MS Dhoni (capt), Eklavya Dwivedi, Kyle Abbott, Baba Aparajith, Ravichandran Ashwin, Samuel Badree, Ankush Bains, Dwayne Bravo, Faf du Plessis, Matt Henry, Michael Hussey, Ravindra Jadeja, Brendon McCullum, Mithun Manhas, Ronit More, Pawan Negi, Ashish Nehra, Ishwar Pandey, Irfan Pathan, Pratyush Singh, Suresh Raina, Mohit Sharma, Rahul Sharma, Dwayne Smith, Andrew Tye.

Hyderabad (from): David Warner (capt), Ashish Reddy, Ricky Bhui, Ravi Bopara, Trent Boult, Shikhar Dhawan, Moises Henriques, Siddarth Kaul, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Praveen Kumar, Chama Milind, Eoin Morgan, Naman Ojha (wk), Parvez Rasool, Padmanabhan Prasanth, Lokesh Rahul, Ishant Sharma, Karn Sharma, Laxmi Shukla, Dale Steyn, Hanuma Vihari, Kane Williamson

Players to Watch

Chennai

With the small matter of 2,645 runs in 113 IPL games at an impressive strike rate of 141.74, no match is over until MS Dhoni sings...or, more accurately, gets out. Throw in his ever-calm captaincy, effective wicketkeeping and the oodles of experience the 33-year-old has collected along the way and it's clear that India's former Test skipper remains a force to be reckoned with in the sport's shortest format.

Hyderabad

New Zealand's incredible performance at the 2015 World Cup was thanks in no small part to Trent Boult, who took 22 wickets at 16.86 from nine games with his dangerous combination of pace and swing. The left-arm paceman has only played 40 T20 games in his career but will be desperate to justify his huge transfer fee in his first ever IPL.  

Prediction

Hyderabad certainly seem stronger than IPL 7 but Chennai have been a slick, well-oiled T20 unit for so long that another two points seem certain here. The fact that MS Dhoni's men played on Thursday could mean they're tired for this encounter. But it could also mean they are warmed up and more-than-ready for the Sunrisers.