Chennai vs Delhi, IPL: Date, Time, Live Stream, TV Info, Preview

The Chennai Super Kings and the Delhi Daredevils kick off their 2015 Indian Premier League campaigns having had differing times of it in the 2014 edition.

Chennai finished third in the table and were knocked out in the semifinals, while Delhi finished bottom after winning just twice all season.

With that in mind, the two teams have plenty to play for despite their differing objectives for the upcoming IPL.

Venue: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai

Date: Thursday, April 9

Start time: 8 p.m. local time, 3:30 p.m. BST

Live on: Sony Six and Set Max (India), IMG (Caribbean), PCCW (Hong Kong), 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).

Weather: According to Weather.com, Chennai promises to be partly cloudy with temperatures peaking at a staggering 96 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 35 degrees Celsius.

Overview

The preparations are almost over for these two teams, who start their 2015 IPL campaigns with clean slates after varying fortunes last year.

Chennai come into this game on the back of an appearance in the playoffs last time around after nine wins and just five losses in 2014.

However, they were unable to add to their two tournament championship wins in 2010 and 2011, as they lost by 24 runs to Kings XI Punjab in the second qualifying game.

They have assembled another strong squad led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, with several World Cup stars in their ranks, including Brendon McCullum and Suresh Raina.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Daredevils finished bottom of the table for the second year in a row in 2014 and will be hoping to reverse that trend.

Under captain JP Duminy, they have a strong middle order that includes Yuvraj Singh and Angelo Mathews, but there is a lack of depth in the opening positions.

However, with the likes of Imran Tahir, Amit Mishra and Mohammed Shami available as front-line bowlers and Albie Morkel as an all-rounder, they should be strong in that area.

Team News

Chennai Super Kings (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.
 
Delhi Daredevils (from): Jean-Paul Duminy (capt), Mayank Agarwal, Srikar Bharat, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Quinton de Kock, Domnic Joseph, Chidhambaram Gautam, Travis Head, Imran Tahir, Shreyas Iyer, Kedar Jadhav, KK Jiyas, Zaheer Khan, Angelo Mathews, Amit Mishra, Mohammed Shami, Albie Morkel, Shahbaz Nadeem, Gurinder Sandhu, Marcus Stoinis, Manoj Tiwary, Saurabh Tiwary, Jaydev Unadkat, Jayant Yadav, Yuvraj Singh.

Key Players

Brendon McCullum

Chennai batsman Brendon McCullum had a successful Cricket World Cup for New Zealand, as his aggressive batting led them to the final.

If he can replicate that form for the Super Kings, they will be fearsome opponents.

Imran Tahir

South African spinner Imran Tahir profited on the wickets of Australia and New Zealand during the World Cup, and he will look for more of the same for the Daredevils.

The Delhi man will welcome the chance to ply his trade on the spin-friendly pitches of India and should be one to watch throughout.