By Kolkata Knight Riders couldn’t have asked for a better performance from their bowlers in the final. They were asked to bowl first on a red-soil pitch, and every bowler had his moment as an imposing Sunrisers Hyderabad batting line-up crumbled to be bowled out for 113 – the lowest total ever in an IPL final. KKR chased down the target comfortably to clinch their third IPL title in dominant fashion.
Mitchell Starc set the tone with a stunning spell of 3-0-14-2. His first over, against Abishek Sharma, was a series of away-going deliveries that beat the bat or caught the edge. The fifth delivery of that over saw the ball start on middle and leg, pitch on a good length and square Abhishek up before hitting the off stump. In his third over, Starc had Rahul Tripathi caught off a leading edge. KKR had another big wicket with Travis Head being dismissed caught behind for a golden duck against Vaibhav Arora. At 23/3 in five overs, with only one of the two boundaries in this phase being middled, KKR got the dream start they wanted.
Sunrisers Hyderabad struggled during their powerplay, scoring 40/3 with 1 six and 4 fours. The sixth over, bowled by Arora, saw some counterattack which yielded 17 runs to restore some parity but the damage had already been done. Starc, Arora, and KKR were all over SRH, not allowing them to get away.
Kolkata Knight Riders Clinch Third IPL Title
In the middle overs, SRH managed 50/4, with Nitish Reddy raising hopes of a counterattack before Harshit Rana cut off his momentum. Sunil Narine then strung together a couple of quiet overs before Andre Russell struck to have Aiden Markram caught off a shortish delivery. Varun Chakaravarthy struck in his first over to have Shahbaz Ahmed caught at short fine leg. Abdul Samad, the batting impact sub, fared no better, edging Russell behind. The dangerous Heinrich Klaasen dragged one off Rana to put SRH in a point of no return.
In the death overs, SRH managed only 23/2, as Pat Cummins and the KKR bowlers fashioned a comprehensive victory. SRH were bowled out for their second-lowest total ever in IPL, setting up a straightforward chase for KKR.
KKR’s powerplay was a stark contrast, as they scored 72/1 with 8 fours and 4 sixes. Venkatesh Iyer led the charge with a blistering innings, hitting boundaries at will. He notched up a 24-ball half-century, guiding KKR to an 8-wicket victory.
Brief Scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 113 all out in 18.3 overs (Pat Cummins 24; Andre Russell 3-19, Mitchell Starc 2-14) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 114/2 in 10.3 overs (Venkatesh Iyer 52*) by 8 wickets
