Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by eight wickets in Qualifier 1, thanks to unbeaten half-centuries by skipper Shreyas Iyer (58) and Venkatesh Iyer (51). This victory secured KR’s spot in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 final at Narendra Modi Stadium on Tuesday.
Hyderabad will next play the winner of the Rajasthan Royals vs. Royal Challengers Bengaluru Eliminator match in Chennai on Friday, giving them another opportunity to face KKR in the championship game.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Sunil Narine, the openers, provided KKR an explosive start in the Powerplay overs as they chased 160, scoring runs at a pace of more than 10 per over.
It took 44 runs in 20 balls for the first-wicket partnership to break before T. Natrajan started to make inroads in the fourth over. After the chase got off to an explosive start, the pacer got rid of Gurbaz at the 23-run mark to put the side back in the game.
After the powerplay, Pat Cummins brought Narine(21) into the attack with his first over, but Venkatesh Iyer joined Narine in the middle and they added 23 runs to maintain the momentum.
With 38 balls remaining, the team was able to chase the score thanks to the partnership that Shreyas Iyer established when he came out to bat at No. 4.
During the victorious run-chase, Shreyas (58) and Venkatesh (51) amassed an undefeated 97-run partnership for the third wicket in addition to smashing their respective fifties. To lead their team to the championship, both players went on a rampage, hitting four sixes and five fours apiece.
Earlier, after Sunrisers Hyderabad elected to bat first, KKR held them to 159 all out in 19.3 overs.
Hyderabad lost their offensive opener, Travis Head, for a duck, therefore they did not have the best start to the game. Within the Powerplay, things quickly deteriorated as they lost three more wickets in the opening six overs.
With three of the four wickets in the powerplay coming from pacer Mitchell Starc, the man was on a roll. Nitish Reddy (9) and Abhishek Sharma (3). and Shahbaz Ahmed (0) were selected at a discount as Hyderabad’s hitters struggled in the match under intense strain. Six overs later, SRH were 45/4.
Though they were under siege, Rahul Tripathi and Heinrich Klaasen’s presence in the centre offered the team some respite as they played their shots freely. Before Varun Chakaravarthy broke the partnership in the 11th over, the two stitched up a quickfire 62-run partnership off 37 balls, with Tripathi hitting a fifty off 29 balls. After playing a knock of thirty-two runs, Klaasen left.
Tripathi was joined by Abdul Samad to increase the total, but his innings ended on 55 due to an error in the middle of the pitch. There were seven fours and a six throughout his knock. As Sunil Narine and Harshit Rana joined the KKR party in the late middle overs, SRH was unable to turn things around and continued to lose wickets. Ultimately, Pat Cummins, the captain, scored 30 runs off of 24 balls in a cameo to help his team beyond 150 runs. In the last over of the innings, Andre Russell ended his late effort.
Starc was the best bowler for KKR, coming back with figures of 3-34 while Chakaravarthy claimed two wickets.