How to Watch the 2018 Indian Premier League Live – Stream The IPL Cricket Free with a VPN
April 27, 2018
If you are a cricket fan who wants to watch as many games as possible, then you need a Virtual Private Network (VPN). A VPN for cricket will let you unblock geo-restricted cricket streams from all around the world. With a VPN you can unblock not only IPL cricket, but also British, South African, Australian, and many other cricketing nations’ televised matches.
How to Watch IPL Cricket Online?
Stream IPL Cricket via Hotstar
Recommended Method
Hotstar has exclusive rights to show IPL cricket in India. Hotstar is available without a subscription as soon as you access the website connected to an Indian server. So, if watching the cricket for free with Indian commentary is ok with you then this is a fantastic option! For more information about using a VPN for India, check out our India VPN guide.
How to Setup a VPN for Indian Premier League Cricket
Once you have decided on a VPN, setting it up to watch Indian Premier League Cricket is very easy. Just follow these simple steps:
- Select a VPN for IPL cricket. To unblock the cricket, we recommend ExpressVPN because it is secure, fast, and has excellent Indian, UK, and US servers (plus servers in 94 countries for watching cricket).
- Select an Indian VPN server and click Connect.
- Navigate to Hotstar.
- That’s it! Your VPN workaround is set up and you are ready to watch the cricket online.
However, if you are in a rush to start watching IPL cricket as quickly as possible, we recommend ExpressVPN – because it is by far the best overall VPN for unblocking cricket streams from all over the world. If you want the best, get Express!
Watch The IPL With Sky Sports
British Alternative
There are a few places that you can watch the cricket online. For many people, the best method will be to get a subscription to the UK’s Sky Sports to watch the Sky Sports Cricket channel.
Sky Sports has got exclusive rights to broadcast IPL cricket in the UK. For anybody living outside of the UK – or any UK residents who happen to be out of the country traveling or on holiday – a VPN is an easy way to gain access to Sky Sports Cricket online.
A Sky Sports subscription costs £38 ($53.29). (That is £20 for the basic Sky entertainments plan plus £18 for the sky sports add-on plan.)
Another easy way to watch Sky Sports is on Now TV. Now TV allows people to watch Sky Sports online. Now TV can be purchased on a daily (£7.99), weekly (14.99), or monthly pass (£33.99). Now TV is also offering a special deal of 40% off for the first two months at the moment.
Stream The IPL With Willow TV Channel
American Alternative
Another option for watching the Cricket is on the US and Canada service Willow TV.
This channel is dedicated to showing cricket matches from all around the world, including matches played by The International Cricket Council (ICC), The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), The Cricket Australia, Cricket South Africa, West Indies Cricket Board, Sri Lanka Cricket, Bangladesh Cricket Board, Pakistan Cricket Board, and Zimbabwe Cricket. If you’re look for an Australian VPN to watch the cricket, take a look at our best VPN for Australia guide.
A subscription to Willow TV can be made directly on its website. Simply connect to a VPN server located in the US, navigate to the website, and subscribe for $9.99 per month.
Willow TV is also available on the US-only subscription service Sling TV.
Alternative Options for Streaming IPL Cricket
Here are some other options for watching IPL cricket online. Both of the channels listed have premium paid subscription plans to watch IPL cricket online.
- SuperSport (South Africa)
- OSN Play (Middle East)
How to Setup a VPN for Indian Premier League Cricket
Once you have decided on a VPN, setting it up to watch Indian Premier League Cricket is very easy. Just follow these simple steps:
- Select a VPN for IPL cricket. To unblock the cricket, we recommend ExpressVPN because it is secure, fast, and has excellent Indian, UK, and US servers (plus servers in 94 countries for watching cricket).
- Click through to the website and subscribe to your favorite IPL cricket VPN. If you want a few more choices, check out our best VPNs for streaming article.
- Download and install the VPN software. Remember to get the right version for your devices.
- Run the software and select your preferred settings (OpenVPN encryption is recommended).
- Select a VPN server where you need it and click Connect.
- Navigate to Sky Sports Cricket, NowTV, Hotstar, WillowTV – or any other service that is streaming IPL cricket online – and subscribe.
- That’s it! Your VPN workaround is set up and you are ready to watch the cricket online.
Stream IPL Cricket FAQs
How a VPN for Cricket Works
Many cricket streams are unavailable outside of the country where the matches are taking place. This is due to copyright and licensing restrictions. For cricket fans who want to watch those streams, a restriction notice is usually the end of the line. That is unless they use a VPN!
Using a VPN, anybody, anywhere, can pretend to be in a different country. This allows them to access geo-restricted streams of cricket matches and leagues that would usually be inaccessible. This includes unblocking Indian Premier League Cricket matches all season.
IPL Cricket Fixtures
The next 5 fixtures of the 2018 IPL league are as follows (all times BST):
- April 23 – Delhi Daredevils vs Kings XI Punjab, 3.30pm
- April 24 – Mumbai Indians vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, 3.30pm
- April 25 – Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Chennai Super Kings, 3.30pm
- April 26 – Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Kings XI Punjab, 3.30pm
- April 27 – Delhi Daredevils vs Kolkata Knight Riders, 3.30pm
- April 28 – Chennai Super Kings vs Mumbai Indians, 3.30pm
- April 29 – Rajasthan Royals vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, 11.30am
- April 29 – Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Kolkata Knight Riders, 3.30pm
- April 30 – Chennai Super Kings vs Delhi Daredevils, 3.30pm
The 2018 IPL Season so far
On Sunday, Suresh Raina scored another 50 runs in his match against Sunrisers Hyderabad. That takes his total runs scored in the IPL to 4658 runs from 165 matches (an average of 34.25). This puts him ahead of Virat Kohli again – who is also actively fighting for the record. The match itself was a nail-biter, with the Chennai Super Kings only just winning the game by four runs!
So far, the season has seen a poor start for the Delhi Daredevils, who are sitting in last position. This is a huge surprise because pre-season most people had the Daredevils pegged to do very well indeed. So, what has gone wrong? Pundits are putting it down to all manner of things including lapses of concentration, lack of team support, and bad playing in general.
However, it may also have something to do with the fact that that the Daredevils have yet to play a game on home turf: every game so far has been away. In India, playing away from home makes a bigger difference than in most other places, because the dimensions of the grounds and the pitches vary wildly from place to place. That is why winning IPL teams usually have superb records on their own turf.
Higher up the table, Raina’s team Chennai Super Kings and the Kings XI Punjab are out front with eight points apiece. Both those teams have won four matches and lost one. In third and fourth are Kolkata and Hyderabad – with six points each.
However, to be fair, Hyderabad have played one match less than the Knight Riders: so they could easily move up to third if they beat the Mumbai Indians on Tuesday. That should be easily achievable considering the Mumbai Indians are one from bottom in the league.
Watch IPL Cricket Online – Conclusion
No matter whether you decide to watch IPL cricket for free on Hotstar – or by paying for the UK’s Sky Sports Cricket, or the US-only Willow TV service- a VPN for cricket is the perfect solution. With a VPN you can pretend to be in a different country to watch as much live cricket as you want!
To stream the cricket we recommend any of the VPN in our 5 best VPNs for streaming article. Those VPNs all fantastic servers everywhere that you need them for watching the cricket. However, if you want the very best VPN for cricket, we recommend ExpressVPN because it has everything you need to watch IPL and other cricket streams in HD without buffering.
Title image credit: Vivo IPL cricket logo
Image credits: Vasyl Shulga/Shutterstock.com, wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock.com
