Hyderabad, May 2 (IANS) Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) host Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the 45th match of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 on Sunday at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium as both teams are coming off of recently strong comebacks.

After Ishan Kishan led team to a slow start of just one win from their first four games, improvements made to the bowling attack have aided the Orange Army in winning five consecutive matches now. Should SRH win again on Sunday, they will move to the top of the points table marking a tremendous turnaround in an incredibly competitive league.

KKR have struggle coming this season and had a dismal start of one win out of their first six games; KKR have now recorded two wins including one win this past week against the Lucknow Super Giants in thrilling fashion via Super Over.

Another storyline heading into the match on Sunday will be the possible debut of Matheesha Pathirana for KKR. The Sri Lankan left-arm fast bowler is known for his unorthodox bowling action and for bowling effectively at both the start and end of the innings; he will be a key addition to an already potent KKR bowling attack as they try to contain the powerful batting lineup of SRH.

Historically, KKR have had the upper hand in this rivalry. Out of 31 encounters, they have won 19 matches, while SRH have secured 11 victories, with one game ending in a tie.

When: April 3, Sunday, 3:30 PM IST

Where: Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium.

Where to watch: The SRH vs KKR match will be broadcast on Star Sports channels, with JioHotstar live-streaming the game.

Squads:

Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane (c), Rinku Singh (vc), Finn Allen, Tejasvi Dahiya (wk), Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ramandeep Singh, Sarthak Ranjan, Tim Seifert (wk), Rahul Tripathi, Daksh Kamra, Cameron Green, Sunil Narine, Rachin Ravindra, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, Saurabh Dubey, Kartik Tyagi, Blessing Muzarabani, Matheesha Pathirana, Navdeep Saini, Prashant Solanki, Umran Malik, Varun Chakravarthy

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Travis Head, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Smaran Ravichandran, Abhishek Sharma, Harsh Dubey, Kamindu Mendis, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Pat Cummins (c), Eshan Malinga, Jaydev Unadkat, Harshal Patel, Salil Arora, Praful Hinge, Liam Livingstone, Shivam Mavi, Jack Edwards, Brydon Carse, Sakib Hussain, Zeeshan Ansari, Aniket Verma, Amit Kumar, Krains Fuletra

–IANS

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