Watch IPL Cricket Playoffs Qualifier Live Stream: Sunrisers Hyderabad Vs. Chennai Super Kings, Preview
The 2018 Indian Premier League T20 cricket tournament wrapped up its round-robin stage on Sunday, with 2016 titlists Sunrisers Hyderabad barely nipping two-time champs Chennai Super Kings by a slim net-run-rate margin to finish top of the table. Now, these two teams will clash in the first playoff match of the 2018 IPL, a game that will live stream, from Mumbai, India, on Tuesday with the winner advancing straight to next Sunday’s championship final match.
The loser of the qualifier match will face the winner of Wednesday’s first eliminator in the second and final elimination match on Friday. The first eliminator pits third-place Kolkata Knight Riders against Rajasthan Royals, who slipped into the playoff round with a win over Royal Challengers Bangalore on Saturday — a win which also eliminated defending champs Mumbai Indians from contention this year.
To find out how to watch a live stream of the Sunrisers Hyderabad vs. Chennai Super Kings first 2018 IPL qualifier match, see the streaming information at the bottom of this article. The first ball is scheduled to be bowled at 7 p.m. Indian Standard Time at 33,000-seat Wankhede Cricket Stadium in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday, May 22. In the United Kingdom, that start time will be 2:30 p.m. British Summer Time, while in the United States, the playoff match gets underway at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 6:30 a.m. Pacific.
Though Sunrisers and the Super Kings were favored to take the top two spots in this year’s IPL by cricket experts from before the season got underway, and that prediction proved accurate, both teams enter the playoffs playing less than championship-level cricket. Led by New Zealand Captain Kane Williamson, the Hyderabad side comes into the qualifier match riding a three-game losing streak.
Indian cricket legend MS Dhoni has also seen his Super Kings team falter, failing to win two straight matches throughout the entire month of May. But CSK appears to have an edge in the qualifier match, having defeated Williamson’s Sunrisers twice in their two matches in the round-robin stage. Those defeats account for two of only five matches dropped by Sunrisers in the 2018 campaign.
Here are the expected teams for the first IPL qualifier match.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Shikhar Dhawan, Alex Hales, Kane Williamson (captain), Shreevats Goswami, Manish Pandey, Deepak Hooda, Shakib Al Hasan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul.
Chennai Super Kings: Ambati Rayudu, Shane Watson, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (captain), Faf du Plessis, Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Harbhajan Singh, Shardul Thakur, Lungi Ngidi.
To watch a live stream of the Sunrisers Hyderabad vs. Chennai Super Kings first 2018 IPL qualifier match from Mumbai, India, in the United States, the only source is the U.S. affiliate of India streaming site Hotstar at this link. The service charges a $7.99 per month fee, but also offers a one-month free trial, allowing cricket fans to watch the IPL qualifier match for free simply by canceling the subscription before the one-month trial period concludes. The U.S. Hotstar service is also available on mobile phones and the Roku set-top streaming box by downloading the Hotstar app.
India’s Hotstar service will also live stream the match in that country. Access the Indian Hotstar site at this link.
The Sunrisers Hyderabad Vs. Chennai Super Kings IPL playoff qualifier match will be broadcast by Sky Sports in the United Kingdom and Ireland, which means that to access a live stream, fans in the U.K. and in Ireland require a Sky Sports subscription. Subscribers then need to register for the satellite network’s Sky Go streaming service, which is free, but fans must fill out some basic information at this link to obtain a Sky Go login.
Once registration is complete, Sky Go Sports’ login page can be found at this link. Then, at last, cricket viewers can stream the Sunrisers vs. Super Kings match live from Mumbai. Sky Go is also available on most mobile devices by downloading the Sky Go app. A full list of compatible devices can be found by clicking here.
