Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Rajasthan, IPL: Date, Time, Live Stream, TV Info, Preview

Sunrisers Hyderabad will take on top-of-the table Rajasthan Royals on Thursday as the Indian Premier League starts to pick up the pace.

Date: Thursday, April 16

Time: 8 p.m. local/3:30 p.m. BST

Venue: Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam

Weather:  AccuWeather.com has given the all-clear on the weather front. It's going to be a hot day with highs of 32 degrees Celsius, cooling to about 23 at night time. Thunderstorms are always looming this time of year, but it should not be bad enough to disrupt play completely.  

TV Info and Live Stream: Sony Six, Star Sports HD, Star Sports 1 (India), Sky Sports (United Kingdom), SuperSport (South Africa), OSN(UAE) SkyTV ( New Zealand), Network Ten (Australia), Channel 9 (Bangladesh), Sportsnet and Omini (Canada), Sports Max (West Indies), Geo Super (Pakistan), Starhub (Singapore).

Overview

Rajasthan Royals have made an impeccable start in the IPL this year, winning three out of three matches thus far. Steve Smith has continued his form from the World Cup and notched up 122 runs in three games with Ajinkya Rahane and little-known Deepak Hooda also playing their part. Their bowling has come up short at times, but overall, Rajasthan have been solid.

Sunrisers haven't hit their straps quite as hard yet, but they do have the luxury of Trent Boult in their bowling attack. The Hyderabad franchise have won one and lost one out of their two games, but Rajasthan will be a different kettle of fish.

Statistically, Rajasthan have the slight upper hand; since the Sunrisers rebranded from Deccan Chargers, the two teams have played five games against each other, with Rajasthan winning three and Hyderabad winning two.

In T20, though, stats don’t mean that much and with it still being the early stages in the competition, both sides have the chance to stamp their authority on the competition going forward.

Key players

Hyderabad

David Warner has two fifties on the bounce in the IPL and it's only a matter of time before he hits a massive score. With his confidence up and Rajasthan's bowling on the weak side, the Australian has the ideal platform to hit a big score.

Rajasthan

Ajinkya Rahane is in good form, having scored 47 and 46 in his last two outings. Batting consistency is a key part of success in T20s, especially given the batsmen-friendly pitches the IPL usually produces. If Rahane can see off some of the opening bowlers’ threats, he’ll have the ideal foundation to help the team set a solid total.

Squads

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

Rajasthan: Shane Watson, Stuart Binny, James Faulkner, Ajinkya Rahane, Sanju Samson, Steven Smith, Rajat Bhatia, Tim Southee, Dhawal Kulkarni, Abhishek Nayar, Ben Cutting, Karun Nair, Deepak Hooda, Dishant Yagnik, Vikramjeet Malik, Ankit Sharma, Rahul Tewatia, Pravin Tambe, Chris Morris, Dinesh Salunkhe, RustyTheron, Pardeep Sahu, Brainder Sran, Sagar Trivedi