Shreyas Iyer-led KKR end trophy drought with commanding win as SRH put up a flop show in one-sided IPL 2024 final

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) ended their 10-year trophy doubt and won their third Indian Premier League (IPL) title on May 26. In a one-sided encounter at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, KKR beat Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by eight wickets with 63 balls to spare to win the IPL 2024 final. Shreyas Iyer became the latest entrant on the list of IPL-winning captains as SRH registered the lowest total in an IPL final. 

Collapse makes it a one-sided encounter

Earlier, SRH captain Pat Cummins won the toss and opted to bat first. The decision worked in KKR’s favour as Mitchell Starc knocked over Abhishek Sharma with the fifth ball of the over. Travis Head could not make a mark either and got out for a golden duck in the second over bowled by Vaibhav Arora. Rahul Tripathi's shot selection faltered and he handed an easy catch as Starc's delivery hurried on to him. In the sixth over, Aiden Markram for two fours. Nitish Reddy ended the over with a six. SRH were 40/3 after powerplay overs.

Harshit Rana ended Reddy's stay at the crease. The young all-rounder scored 13 runs from 10 balls. At the halfway stage, SRH were 61/4. Andre Russell was brought into the attack and he delivered with Markram's wicket. He scored 20 runs from 23 balls. Shahbaz Ahmed hit Russell for a six in the same over. Varun Chakaravarthy joined the party and got the wicket of Shahbaz. Impact player Abdul Samad got out for a single-digit score. 
 

Rana was brought back into the attack and he got the prized wicket of Heinrich Klaasen. The wicketkeeper-batter scored 16 runs from 17 balls. Cummins was dropped by Starc in the 16th over. In the next over, he hit Rana for a maximum. Sunil Narine in his last over ended Jaydev Unadkat's troubled stay at the crease. He scored just four runs from 11 balls. In the penultimate over, Cummins went for a big shot but got caught at long-on. He scored 24 runs from 19 balls. SRH got bowled out for 113 with nine balls left in the innings.

Easy run chase

In the first over, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was swinging the ball well. Rahmanullah Gurbaz got the ball rolling with a boundary. Narine got off the mark with a six. On the next ball bowled by Cummins, he got caught. Venkatesh Iyer did not let Bhuvneshwar settle and hit him for a four followed by a couple of sixes. In the sixth over, he went after T Natarajan and hit him for three fours and a six. KKR were 72/1 after powerplay overs. 

Gurbaz took on Shahbaz and hit him for a maximum. In his next over, the Afghan wicketkeeper-batter hit another six to bring up the 100. On the next delivery, he went for a sweep shot but missed. He was given out lbw. The opener opted for the review but ultraedge and ball-tracking technology was not available. He had to depart for a 32-ball 39. Shreyas got off the mark with a boundary in the same over. In the 10th over, Venkatesh reached his half-century from 24 balls. In the 11th over, Venkatesh scored the winning runs. He remained unbeaten for 52 off 26 balls.  The run chase ended in just 10.3 overs. 
 

MORE ON SPORTS TAK:

Michael Vaughan schools journalist with epic reply to 'Will you apologise if Pakistan win T20 WC' remark

T20 World Cup 2024: Virat Kohli likely to miss warm-up game against Bangladesh - Check the reason