 "IPL Final: Kolkata Knight Riders thump Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight wickets to clinch third title")
Kolkata Knight Riders were crowned 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) champions after they thumped Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by eight wickets in the final in Chennai on Sunday. This is KKR’s third IPL title, and heir first since 2014, when they had beaten Kings XI Punjab (Now Punjab Kings).
SRH had won the toss and had opted to bat at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. However, their decision to do so backfired big time after they were restricted to 40/3 in the powerplay. Mitchell Starc, who was acquired by KKR for Rs 24.75 crore at the auction, struck in the very first over, cleaning up Abhishek Sharma with an unplayable delivery.
Travis Head, SRH’s other opener who had an excellent start to the season, was dismissed by Vaibhav Arora in the second over, after he was caught by wicketkeeper Rahmanullah Gurbaz. Only Aiden Markram (20) and Pat Cummins (24) could provide some resistance to the innings but even then, both were dismissed in similar fashion, caught Starc bowled Russell. Cummins, in fact, was Hyderabad’s top-scorer.
Andre Russell (3/19) and Mitchell Starc (2/14) were KKR’s standout bowlers, but most importantly, every other bowler stepped up as well. Harshit rana (2/24) was clinical, and so were Vaibhav Arora (1/24), Sunil Narine (1/16) and Varun Chakaravarthy (1/9).
In KKR’s chase, they faced an early scare after Pat Cummins dismissed Sunil Narine in the second over. Narine was looking to flick, but only got an edge that flew towards Shahbaz Ahmed, who came running in from the deep. Venkatesh Iyer, who had scored an unbeaten fifty in Qualifier 1 against the same opposition, came back to haunt SRH with yet another aggressive knock, scoring an unbeaten 52. Rahmanullah Gurbaz, who had replaced Phil Salt at the top of the order, contributed 39 as the he and Venkatesh put on 91 runs for the second wicket.
In the ninth over, Shahbaz Ahmed struck with the wicket of Rahmanullah Gurbaz, who was trapped lbw. However, that wicket came a bit too late for Sunrisers Hyderabad as KKR were already 102/2, needing just 12 more runs to win. Shreyas Iyer walked out to bat at No 4, and played a reverse sweep towards backward point for four runs in the ninth over. In the third ball of the 11th over, Venkatesh Iyer then finished the match with a single, inside edging past the keeper for the winning run.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsFor SRH, this defeat will come as a heartbreak, especially given the kind of explosive start to the tournament they had with Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma firing on all cylinders.
Brief scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 113 all out in 18.3 overs (Pat Cummins 24, Aiden Markram 20; Andre Russell 3/19, Mitchell Starc 2/14) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 114/2 (Venkatesh Iyer 52*, Rahmanullah Gurbaz 39; Pat Cummins 1/18, Shahbaz Ahmed 1/22).
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