KKR Secures 3rd IPL Title
An all-round performance from Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), including fiery spells by Mitchell Starc and Andre Russell and a half-century by Venkatesh Iyer, helped the Purple and Gold side secure their third Indian Premier League (IPL) title and their first in 10 years as they defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by eight wickets on Sunday at Chennai’s Chepauk Stadium.
Sunrisers, which set the T20 cricketing world on fire with their fierce hitting, sky-high run-rates, largely due to the opening pair of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, got the taste of its own medicine. In a battle of two big buys, the Australian stars Cummins (20.5 crores for SRH) and Starc (24.75 crores for KKR), it was the latter who prevailed.
During the run-chase of 114 runs, the opening pair of Sunil Narine and Rahmanullah Gurbaz could not put on a lengthy partnership. Narine was dismissed for just six runs in two balls, with SRH skipper Pat Cummins getting his wicket. Shahbaz Ahmed took a fine catch. KKR was 11/1 in 1.2 overs.
Venkatesh Iyer joined Gurbaz and took the run-chase forward. The left-handed Venkatesh started Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s third over with a four, six and then another six. 20 runs came from the over.
With a boundary on delivery by Cummins, Gurbaz helped KKR reach the 50-run mark in 4.1 overs.
The final over of the powerplay by T Natrajan also proved to be a run-fest, with Iyer getting three fours and a six over deep square leg in his over, which gave a total of 20 runs to KKR.
At the end of the powerplay after six overs, KKR was 72/1, with Iyer (40) and Gurbaz (21) unbeaten.
Kolkata marched towards the winning total with their brutal hitting, giving SRH a taste of their own medicine. With a six by Iyer over long-off, KKR crossed the 100-run mark in 8.4 overs.
However, Gurbaz lost his wickets, trapped leg-before wicket by Shahbaz Ahmed for 39 in 32 balls, with five fours and two sixes. KKR was 102/2 in 8.5 overs.
Skipper Shreyas Iyer was next up and he started by launching a reverse sweep into the boundary.
KKR completed the run-chase, making 114/2 in 10.3 overs, with Venkatesh (52* in 26 balls, with four boundaries and three sixes) and Shreyas (6* in three balls, with a four) unbeaten.
Pat Cummins and Shahbaz Ahmed got a wicket each.
Earlier, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) quicks made short work of the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) forcing the Pat Cummins side to unfold on a score of 113 in the title clash of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 on Sunday here at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
On a night with clouds hovering over Chepauk, KKR pacers inflicted carnage on a red soil surface which offered more bounce for the speedsters.
It all started with Mitchell Starc putting on an exhibition with the new ball to put Hyderabad on the back foot through his opening spell, returning with a figure of 2-14 while Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy combined well in the middle phase to pile the misery with Russell finishing with three wickets in just 2.3 overs, conceding 19.
Put to bat first, Starc with an outstanding opening over dimmed SRH openers’ hopes of forming a strong partnership. The Aussie pacer, who was acquired by KKR for a whopping price of Rs 24.75 crores, becoming the most expensive player of the tournament’s history, gave SRH a big blow as he bowled a top-notch delivery to remove opener Abhishek Sharma for two in the first over of the innings.
The right-arm fast-medium Vaibhav Arora piled more misery on SRH as he dismissed Travis Head for a duck.
SRH was blown away by Starc’s inswingers as the pacer delivered a terrific delivery which Rahul Tripathi mistimed to hand a catch to Ramandeep Singh at the mid-wicket.
After three dismissals Aiden Markram and Nitish Reddy then held the charge to take SRH past 40/3 after 6 overs. Markram then opened his hands and cracked 17 off Vaibhav’s over, slamming back-to-back two boundaries.
Harshit Rana then bagged his first wicket of the night, removing Nitish Reddy for 13 in the 7th over. After some superb stuff from the KKR pacers, captain Shreyas Iyer introduced spin by giving the bowl to Sunil Narine, who kept the run flow in check.
Andre Russell came into the attack and got a wicket of set batter Markram for 20 and in his next over he removed Abdul Samad for 4.
Harshit then dismissed Heinrich Klaasen for 16 and the last pure batter of SRH also departed leaving Hyderabad’s hope of scoring a big total in a ditch. This was the second-lowest score at the fall of the 7th wicket in an IPL final.
Pat Cummins kept piling runs and rotating strikes, however, the captain failed to guide his team to a big total as Russell bagged the last wicket bundling out SRH for 113 in 18.3.
Brief score: Sunrisers Hyderabad 18.3 (Pat Cummins 24, Aiden Markram 20; Andre Russell 3-19) vs Kolkata Knight Riders. (ANI)
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