What

Week 3 of Pepsi IPL 2015 will kick off with a contest between Sunrisers Hyderabad and defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders.

Since beating a formidable Royal Challengers Bangalore, Sunrisers Hyderabad have lost two close matches at home – against Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils. RR pipped them at the post winning off the last ball of the match, while DD defended ten off the last over and won by four runs. SRH have competed – but they will be aware of the need to start getting points on the board quickly.

KKR have played like champions, winning three of their four matches and are placed in the top half of the table. They were clinical in their previous outing against the Delhi Daredevils when they restricted the hosts to a modest 146 and chased down the runs without breaking a sweat.

When

22 April 2015, 4p.m. IST

Where

ACA-VDCA Stadium, Visakhapatnam

The Protagonists

A lot rides on the shoulders of the two SRH openers – David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan. The two left-handers will be aware that their team’s batting order does not boast of as much ammunition and depth as some of the other sides and hence need to score big. They are the team’s top two run-getters at this stage and have made runs in every outing; but given the team’s results, they will know of the need to stay at the crease longer and convert the starts to fifties, fifties to big fifties or even post the three-figure scores.

KKR’s batting plans revolve around their opening pair. It has often been seen that one of the openers – Robin Uthappa or Gautam Gambhir – drops anchor and bats through the innings, while the rest of the batsmen play with freedom at the other end. Gambhir did that job to perfection in his team’s previous match against DD, when he scored a half-century and piloted his team’s run-chase.

Contests to look-forward to

KKR’s Morne Morkel has had a fair degree of success against David Warner in international cricket. The South African has dismissed the Australian opener 6 times in international cricket and once in the IPL, and one can be sure he won’t let slip the chance to land a blow on the SRH captain.

Previous Meetings

When they take the field, the Kolkata Knight Riders will be aware they have a psychological edge over Sunrisers Hyderabad, having defeated them thrice in four meetings.

Trivia

Yusuf Pathan has the highest run-aggregate in matches between KKR & SRH. In four innings, he has amassed 163 runs, being dismissed just once. His scores in the four matches read 3*, 49*, 39* and 72.

From four matches against SRH, Sunil Narine has an outstanding economy rate of 5.13, but has only two wickets to show for his efforts.

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