The IPL 2024 champions are the Kolkata Knight Riders. In an exciting encounter held at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday, KKR defeated the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by eight wickets to win the Indian Premier League 2024 championship.
In an incredible bowling display, Andre Russell (3-19), Mitchell Starc (2-14), and Harshit Rana (2-24) helped Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeat Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for a mere 113 runs in the IPL 2024 championship match. Every bowler for the Kolkata Knight Riders has at least one wicket to their name because of the outstanding bowling display.
For KKR to win their third IPL championship, they now had to chase down 114. Starc’s delivery, which started from a leg-stump and then nipped away sharply, gave KKR a promising start right away when he hit Abhishek Sharma’s top of off-stump. In the end, KKR scored 114 runs to win the game and the championship.
In a largely one-sided IPL 2024 title match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday, the Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad in every aspect to claim their third IPL championship with a commanding eight-wicket victory.
With the help of outstanding spells from Mitchell Starc (2-14), Andre Russell (3-19), and Harshit Rana (2-24), KKR’s bowlers dismissed SRH for a meagre 113, the lowest score ever in an IPL final. In response, the batsmen overcame the total in just 10.3 overs, driven by Venkatesh Iyer’s 52 not out off 26 balls, to give the team their second IPL triumph in Chennai.
The only thing SRH did well on a red-soil field was win the toss, because they never found a way to work together or gain momentum to score the lowest total ever in an IPL final. As a result of Starc and Vaibhav Arora’s constant good length bowling, which left the ball swinging constantly and others gaining grip, SRH was completely destroyed.
Such was the fantastic bowling show that every KKR bowler had at least one wicket against their names. Starc gave KKR a bright start from the word go when he hit Abhishek Sharma’s top of off-stump with a delivery which began from leg-stump and then nipped away sharply, reminding everyone of how he began 2015 Men’s ODI World Cup final.
In the next over, Arora’s seaming across delivery resulted in Travis Head nicking behind for a golden duck. After early movement, Starc bowled a short cross-seam delivery on which Rahul Tripathi tried to flick, but gave a massive top edge to mid-wicket fielder. Aiden Markram and Nitish Kumar Reddy looked to counter-attack with four quick boundaries.
Harshit Rana bowled three slower balls, but that didn’t stop KKR. He then delivered a nipping seam-up delivery that got Reddy’s edge on the drive behind to the keeper. Markram was the next to go, dragging too long on a short ball that Russell had given additional bounce to.
The SRH wickets kept falling as impact player Abdul Samad edged away from his body to keeper off Russell, Heinrich Klaasen played on to his stumps off a slower ball from Harshit, and Shahbaz Ahmed top-edged a sweep to short fine leg off Varun Chakaravarthy.
SRH passed 100 thanks to a couple boundaries from skipper Pat Cummins, who led all scorers with 24. However, he and Jaydev Unadkat were dismissed quickly after, as one of the tournament’s most aggressive batting lineups collapsed for 113 runs.
After hitting a pulled six, Sunil Narine went too early with his flick off Pat Cummins, and the thick leading edge was caught by deep mid-wicket, costing KKR 114 runs. Venkatesh looked at Bhuvneshwar Kumar for a four to take 20 runs off the third over, but he counterattacked by dancing down the pitch to whack him for two consecutive sixes.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz, on the other end, used his cut and loft to take two fours, and then he used his outside edges to give himself two more boundaries. After Venkatesh cut and pulled viciously off T Natrajan for two straight fours, he flicked and swung elegantly to take four and six off the left-arm pacer, respectively. At the end of the power play, KKR had scored 72/1, which was also the highest total in an IPL six-over phase.
After drawing Jaydev Unadkat for four, Gurbaz took over by sweeping Shahbaz Ahmed for six and lofting the left-arm spinner for another maximum. However, Shahbaz emerged victorious after trapping a sweeping Gurbaz lbw.
Shreyas Iyer opened his innings by reverse-sweeping Shahbaz for four. Venkatesh then reached his fifty in just twenty-four balls, and he duly concluded the chase with a single to secure KKR’s third IPL victory. KKR is without a doubt the most reliable team in the league.
Shreyas also becomes an IPL winning captain for the first time on his second try, which will be a particularly sweet victory for him given that he was left off of the Indian Test team and the BCCI central contracts earlier this year.
Brief Scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 113 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 in 10.3 overs (Venkatesh Iyer 52 not out, Rahmanullah Gurbaz 39; Pat Cummins 1-18, Shahbaz Ahmed 1-22) by eight wickets.