KKR beat SRH to reach their fourth IPL final: Stats
Kolkata Knight Riders beat Sunrisers Hyderabad in Ahmedabad to reach the 2024 Indian Premier League final. The Knight Riders successfully chased down 160 after bowling SRH out in Qualifier 1. Venkatesh Iyer and Shreyas Iyer powered their chase. Mitchell Starc and Varun Chakravarthy starred with the ball for KKR, while Rahul Tripathi smashed 55. Notably, KKR have qualified for their fourth IPL final.
A look at match summary
Starc blew SRH away after they elected to bat. Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma departed early, leaving SRH stranded at 39/4. Although Tripathi and Heinrich Klaasen took SRH past 100, Varun Chakravarthy and Harshit Rana then choked them. Pat Cummins' 30(24) guided SRH to a respectable total. KKR lost Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Sunil Narine, but Venkatesh and Shreyas powered them to an eight-wicket win.
Iyers seal the win for KKR
Gurbaz and Narine gave KKR a flying start as they were 44/0 after three overs. However, the duo departed eventually (67/2). Venkatesh (51* off 28 balls) and Shreyas (58* off 24 balls) then made the run-chase one-sided, with the former being the aggressor. Shreyas played a captain's knock after being dropped twice early on. Therefore, KKR completed the run-chase in just 13.4 overs.
Starc demolishes SRH's top order
Starc swung the ball with sheer pace on the spicy Ahmedabad wicket early on. That resulted in Head's wicket as he was knocked over (0) on the second ball. In his third over, Starc dismissed Nitish Reddy and Shahbaz Ahmed on the back-to-back deliveries. He later bowled the penultimate over and bagged figures worth 3/34. His final over produced 12 runs.
Starc enters record books
Starc now has the fourth-best bowling figures for the Knight Riders in the IPL playoffs. He is only behind Narine (4/21 vs RCB, Sharjah, 2021), Umesh Yadav (3/13 vs PBKS, Kolkata, 2014), and Nathan Coulter-Nile (3/20 vs SRH, Bengaluru, 2017). Starc went past Kuldeep Yadav, who took 3/35 against SRH in IPL 2016 in Delhi.
Second-most Powerplay wickets in IPL 2024
Starc, who was bought for a record-breaking Rs. 24.75 crore by KKR ahead of IPL 2024, was quite expensive early in the season. However, KRR continued to pin their hopes on Starc, who has bounced back in the last few games. Starc now has nine wickets in the Powerplay in IPL 2024, the second-most by a bowler after Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
A counter-attacking knock from Tripathi
Tripathi fueled SRH's innings after a poor start. The Indian batter launched his counter-attack and propelled SRH from 39/4 to 100 along with Klaasen. Tripathi eventually smashed 55 off 35 balls, a knock laced with 7 fours and 1 six. He was run-out in the 14th over bowled by Narine as his batting partner Abdul Samad attempted to steal a run.
Third SRH batter with this feat
Tripathi has become the third batter with a half-century for SRH in the IPL playoffs. Both David Warner (93* and 69) and Kane Williamson (67 and 50*) have achieved this feat twice. This makes Tripathi the first Indian to unlock this achievement. Notably, the Indian batter's 55 is now the fourth-highest individual score for SRH in the IPL playoffs.
Gurbaz races to 4,000 T20 runs
KKR roped in Gurbaz after Phil Salt returned home for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup. The former smashed a 14-ball 23 (2 fours and 2 sixes). With this, Gurbaz completed 4,000 runs in T20 cricket. He reached this landmark with his 15th run in the match. The Afghanistan batter earlier warmed the bench as the KKR management went ahead with Salt.
KKR won with 38 balls to spare
As per Cricbuzz, KKR won with the second-most balls to spare (38) in an IPL match (160+ targets). Earlier this season, SRH chased down 166 against Lucknow Super Giants when 62 balls were remaining.
Another title loading for KKR?
As mentioned, KKR have reached their fourth IPL final. They won the title in 2012 and 2014 besides finishing as the runners-up in 2021. It is worth noting that KKR finished in the top two only twice ahead of IPL 2024. They went on to win the title on both occasions. KKR won under the leadership of Gautam Gambhir, their incumbent mentor.
