1. Sunrisers Hyderabad
What has been CSK's strength despite an ageing team has exactly been Sunrisers' bane in the matches that they have played so far. While CSK have had plans A, B and C for various situations, Sunrisers have failed miserably whenever their their opening pair of Jonny Bairstow and David Warner have failed to perform. Barring Warner's 400 runs and Bairstow's 304 runs, the next best is World Cup bound Vijay Shankar's 132 runs. The basic problem has been the middle-order where Manish Pandey (54 in six games), Deepak Hooda (47 in six games) and Yusuf Pathan (32 in six games) have been miserable. In fact, Pathan has been surviving on past reputation for years now has not played a match-winning knock for a while now.
2. Chennai Super Kings
On the other hand, Dhoni has played various combinations depending on surfaces and more often than not, his teammates have responded pretty well. Whether it was Harbhajan Singh on a very slow Chepauk track or the restrictive Mitchell Santner in away games, most of Dhoni's strategies have paid off brilliantly. The man who has been a revelation for CSK this season is 40-year-old Imran Tahir with 13 wickets. The South African import has executed his skipper's plans brilliantly. For Sunrisers to remain relevant in this edition, they need to stop the CSK juggernaut which looks easier said than done.
3. Probable XI
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson (capt), Basil Thampi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Hooda, Manish Pandey, T Natarajan, Ricky Bhui, Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul, Shreevats Goswami, Khaleel Ahmed, Yusuf Pathan, Billy Stanlake, David Warner, Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Shakib Al Hasan, Jonny Bairstow, Wriddhiman Saha, Martin Guptill, Vijay Shankar, Abhishek Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem.
Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni (captain & WK), Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Murali Vijay, Kedar Jadhav, Sam Billings, Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Shorey, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Rituraj Gaikwad, Dwayne Bravo, Karn Sharma, Imran Tahir, Harbhajan Singh, Mitchell Santner, Shardul Thakur, Mohit Sharma, K M Asif, Deepak Chahar, N Jagadeesan (wk), Scott Kuggeleijn.
4. Where to watch
Match will be on live Star Sports from 8 pm IST and it will be streamed live on Hot Star. You can also follow live updates through MyKhel.com.