KKR Crush Sunrisers, Secure IPL 2024 Final Spot
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) displayed sheer dominance against Sunrisers Hyderabad in a thrilling showdown at the IPL 2024 Qualifier 1 in Ahmedabad, clinching a convincing victory to secure their spot in the IPL final set to take place in Chennai.
Venkatesh Iyer and Shreyas Iyer ensured that the task was completed quickly using the bat.
Sunrisers Hyderabad 159 (Tripathi 55, Starc 3-34, Varun 2-26) were defeated by Kolkata Knight Riders 164 for 2 (Shreyas 58*, Venkatesh 51, Natarajan 1-22) by eight wickets.
At the IPL 2024, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma are accustomed to going off and killing games in the first six overs. However, it was Mitchell Starc who dominated the powerplay in the first qualifier in Ahmedabad that guaranteed the Kolkata Knight Riders’ place in Sunday’s IPL final in Chennai.
Following an opening spell of 3-0-22-3 in which Starc ripped through the SRH top order, Varun Chakravarthy took charge in the middle overs and helped dismiss SRH for 159 in 19.3 overs.
With more than six overs remaining, KKR achieved the objective because to the undefeated half-centuries produced by Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer.
For a chance to play KKR again in the championship game, Sunrisers Hyderabad will take on the victor of the eliminator between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Squeezed to extra cover, Starc’s first ball to Head was an outswinger. His second appeared to be angled in, but it turned and sailed away in the last moment, breaking through Head’s defenses and leaving his stumps splayed.
A fowl had taken his head off. Across all formats, Starc had removed Head five times, with four of those wickets coming via ducks.
On a surface that was a mixture of red and black soil with some early wetness, pacer Vaibhav Arora, who was selected ahead of spinner Anukul Roy, had Abhishek Sharma scooping a ball to Andre Russell at short cover for 3.
When Starc caught Shahbaz Ahmed (0) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (9) off consecutive balls in his third over, SRH found themselves in even more danger. Rahul Tripathi speared in a yorker that struck him flat on his boot and would have cannoned into leg stump, giving Starc another opportunity to remove him in his second over. However, KKR chose not to request a review, and SRH proceeded to complete the powerplay on 45 for 4. In the 14 innings of the IPL 2024, SRH has only scored fewer runs in the powerplay twice.
With a half-century, Tripathi, who remained at No. 3, salvaged SRH’s innings. He created scoring opportunities by fusing creativity with force. He blasted a bouncer from Harshit Rana for six and smashed Arora over midwicket. With a reverse sweep of Varun for four balls, he achieved his fifty off just 29 balls.
But Tripathi could not hold on as Russell pounced on a miscommunication to dismiss him for 55 off 35 balls. Tripathi was so upset that he spent a considerable amount of time sitting on the steps in Ahmedabad with his head buried in his knee. Tripathi’s shot encapsulated SRH’s evening.
Heinrich Klaasen had dismissed Sunil Narine for 16 off of eight balls; however, Varun Chakravarthy, the other mystery spinner for KKR, struck in his opening over to end Klaasen’s innings at 32 off of 21 balls.
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As Klaasen pulled a catch to deep midwicket, Varun darted one into the ground and prevented him from getting underneath the length. In the 16th over, he then pinned Bhuvneshwar Kumar leg before wicket with a bad ‘un, costing KKR just one run. In 27 IPL innings since the 2023 season began, it was Varun’s 40th wicket. Varun has taken more wickets than any other spinner throughout this time.
SRH was on the verge of being bowled out for a below-140 score at 126 for 9 in 16 overs, but Cummins’ 30 off 24 balls helped them reach a more reasonable 159. In his maiden appearance of the season, Rahmanullah Gurbaz eased himself in at bat after performing admirably behind the stumps.
Gurbaz took over in Phil Salt’s place, who had left the IPL to join the England team, and scored 23 runs off of 14 balls. After hitting four boundaries, T Natarajan had him holing out in his opening over when he attempted a fifth. After three overs, Cummins removed Narine for 21 off 16 balls, but the damage had already been done by KKR’s openers, who slashed 63 runs off their target during the powerplay.
The Iyers, led by skipper Shreyas and Venkatesh, then turned their chase into a cinch as they put up an unbroken 97 partnership for the third wicket off just 44 balls. Both batsmen reached half-centuries along the way, but it was Shreyas who brought the innings to a spectacular close in the 14th over, batting a sequence of 6, 4, 6, 6 off Head.
Pat Cummins on the Defeat
The Sunrisers captain seems unconcerned with his team’s crushing loss to KKR in the first qualifying round.
After his team lost to Kolkata Knight Riders by eight wickets in Tuesday’s Qualifier 1 in Ahmedabad, Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins expressed his desire “to put this one behind pretty quickly” and showed no signs of distress.
Following the game, Cummins remarked, “I guess we have earned the right to have one of those days and still win tournaments.” “Not our day but good thing we have another crack at it [qualifying for the final].”
After deciding to bat, SRH was completely destroyed by Mitchell Starc on the powerplay and eventually removed for 159 in 19.3 overs. To qualify for the final, Venkatesh Iyer and Shreyas Iyer hammered unbeaten fifty-scores to surpass the target in thirteen and a half overs.
About his team’s effort, Cummins described it as “a bit off the pace.” Consider the times you’ve had in Twenty20 cricket. There are days when things just don’t work out, even if you are a really kind person. “We weren’t quite where we wanted to be with the bat because a few people didn’t get off to starts. And sure enough, with the ball, it was impossible to complete.
Kolkata had excellent bowling. Although there was a bit in it early on, that wicket improved. However, it does occur.”Â
The choice made by SRH to select Sanvir Singh as their Impact Player also sparked debate. He was dismissed by Sunil Narine on the first ball after he entered to bat with SRH at 121 for 6 in the fourteenth over. According to Cummins, the choice was made to give SRH more batting options in the second innings in order to bolster their batting.
“The last game was played by Sunny [Sanvir]. To keep Umran [Malik] fresh on that wicket, we were kind of hoping not to need the batting substitute, but we thought the additional batting was crucial,” he remarked.
When SRH plays the winners of the Eliminator between Rajasthan Royals [RR] and Royal Challengers Bengaluru [RCB] in Chennai on Friday, they will have another opportunity to advance to the finals.
“Visiting a new location is also beneficial. You start over because the vibe here is going to be a little different,” Cummins remarked. “We have got a good body of work behind us this season to look back on, so we erase this one and move on.”
