Sunrisers Hyderabad’s maiden Indian Premier League triumph last year was no flash in the pan, and David Warner’s men, brimming with confidence, have already emerged as one of the front-runners to win the title.

At the moment, Sunrisers can do no wrong. All their experiments seem to be working fine too. Their latest change involved integrating New Zealand captain Kane Williamson, who pounced on the opportunity by smashing a classy 51-ball 89 against Delhi Daredevils.

Rising Pune Supergiant, on the other hand, need inspiration or it may very well turn out to be yet another disastrous campaign for the Steve Smith-led outfit. While their spinners – Imran Tahir and Adam Zampa – have shown great control and picked up wickets at regular intervals, Pune’s pace attack has leaked runs aplenty. Even their star-studded batting lineup has struggled for consistency, with MS Dhoni’s travails – 61 runs from 5 games – being the most alarming of the lot.

Time: 4 pm

Venue: MCA Stadium, Pune

TV: Sony Max, Sony Six, Sony ESPN and their HD channels

Results in 2016:

Played: 2

Pune won: 1

Hyderabad won: 1

Rising Pune Supergiants

  • During the five-day break that Pune enjoyed before this game, Smith spent his time in Dubai.
  • This encounter will see Warner and Smith, Australia’s vice-captain and captain respectively, have a go at each other. 
  • The economy rate of pacers at the MCA stadium reads an abysmal 9.60, perhaps explaining how easily the ball comes on to the bat. The average economy rate of the Pune pacers stands at nine runs per over. 

Squad: Steve Smith (captain), MS Dhoni, Ajinkya Rahane, Faf du Plessis, Ben Stokes, Imran Tahir, Mayank Agarwal, Manoj Tiwary, Milind Tandon, Usman Khawaja, Ankush Bains, Rahul Tripathi, Saurabh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, Lockie Ferguson, Daniel Christian, Baba Aparajith, Rajat Bhatia, Jaydev Unadkat, Ashok Dinda, Ishwar Pandey, Adam Zampa, Deepak Chahar, Jaskaran Singh.

“Playing four back-to-back Tests in India and then obviously the IPL, so the idea was to get a little away from the game for a while. Everyone around the world plays so much of cricket. The schedule is getting busier and busier, but you get used to it and I think you have to try and make the most of the little breaks you get” – Steve Smith on why he flew to Dubai.

Sunrisers Hyderabad

  • Sunrisers have not won a single match away from home this season. They come into the game after winning their last two encounters with ease.
  • Bhuvneshwar Kumar is the top wicket-taker this season with 15 wickets. The medium pacer has given away runs at a miserly economy rate of 5.50. 
  • For the first time in the tournament, leg-spinner Rashid Khan went wicketless in SRH’s previous encounter. How will the Afghanistan teenager bounce back?  

“We galvanise well together, we know what to expect.” – David Warner on his team’s success.

Squad: David Warner (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Kane Williamson, Ricky Bhui, Yuvraj Singh, Moises Henriques, Chris Jordan, Abhimanyu Mithun, Barinder Singh Sran, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Naman Ojha (wicketkeeper), Eklavya Dwivedi (wicketkeeper), Tanmay Agarwal, Mustafizur Rahman, Siddarth Kaul, Ben Laughlin, Mohammad Nabi, Mohammed Siraj, Rashid Khan, Pravin Tambe, Ben Cutting, Bipul Sharma, Vijay Shankar Deepak Hooda.