IPL 2024, KKR vs SRH: Kolkata Knight Riders storm into final after Mitchell Starc, Shreyas Iyer heroics

Kolkata Knight Riders stormed into the IPL 2024 final with a comprehensive eight-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Qualifier 1 on Tuesday at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. KKR completed the 160-run chase with 38 balls remaining as captain Shreyas Iyer made 58 not out off 24 balls.

The KKR skipper was ably assisted by Venkatesh Iyer who scored 51 not out off 28 balls.

KKR’s opening stand was worth 44 runs before T Natarajan got the better of Rahmanullah Gurbaz (23 off 14) and Pat Cummins dismissed Sunil Narine (21 off 16) to reduce Kolkata to 67/2 and give SRH some hope.

That hope, however, was quickly dashed by the Iyer duo who scored an unbeaten 97 together off just 44 balls.

Earlier, in the first playoff match of the season, SRH won the toss and asked the table-toppers KKR to bowl first with the hopes of posting a mammoth total. But the decision backfired for Sunrisers as KKR pacer Mitchell Starc wreaked havoc with his blistering spell in the powerplay .

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Strac clean bowled opener Travis Head on only the second ball of the match before dismissing Nitish Reddy and Shahbaz Ahmed to leave SRH reeling at 39/4 after five overs before the Australian was taken out of the attack.

Rahul Tripathi (55 off 35) and Heinrich Klaasen (32 off 21) then put up 62 runs for the fifth-wicket partnership to steady the innings for SRH. But Tripathi’s run out in the 13th over once again changed the complexion of the game as Hyderabad started to lose wickets in a heap.

Cummins scored 30 from the lower order but it wasn’t enough as SRH were bowled out for an under-par score of 159.

Starc finished with match figures of 3/43 while Varun Chakaravarthy took two wickets for 26.

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Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell took a wicket each.

SRH, who finished second in the IPL 2024 points table, will get one more opportunity to qualify for the final through Qualifier 2. The Cummins-led side will play against the winner of the Eliminator in Qualifier 2. Rajasthan Royals take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Eliminator on Wednesday.