Kolkata Knight Riders thrashed in-form Surnrisers Hyderabad with a dominant all-round efficiency to storm into the IPL 2024 ultimate on Tuesday, May 21. Mitchell Starc produced his finest efficiency of the season to bowl out Sunrisers to 159 after which fifties from Venkatesh Iyer and Shreyas Iyer led KKR to a straightforward eight-wicket win at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium.
After ending the league levels on the high of the factors desk, Shreyas-led Kolkata dominated the Qualifier 1 fixture with a formidable efficiency to achieve the finals for the fourth time and the primary time since 2021. Notably, the groups profitable Qualifier 1 have received the match each time since 2018.
Sunrisers Hyderabad, who completed second forward of Rajasthan Royals after thrashing PBKS of their ultimate league-stage match, began with the identical taking part in eleven however struggled to match Kolkata’s top-notch efficiency with each bat and ball.
Mitchell Starc, the most costly signing within the match, dismissed in-form Travis Head on the very second supply within the match and picked two extra wickets within the powerplay to maintain Sunrisers underneath strain. In-form Varun Chakravarthy scalped two wickets for simply 26 to throw his identify within the Purple Cap race this season.Â
Four of Hyderabad’s high 5 batters did not register a double-digit rating however Rahul Tripathi and Heinrich Klaasen scorched a 62-run stand for the fifth wicket to steer the staff previous 100 inside the primary eleven overs. Tripathi top-scored with 55 off simply 35 balls to rejoice his maiden fifty of the season earlier than dropping his wicket to a run-out dismissal.
Hyderabad’s innings collapsed after Klaasen’s dismissal within the eleventh over however Cummins, batting at no.9, added 30 runs off 24 balls to cost his staff previous a 150-plus whole. Chasing a difficult whole, the Knight Riders misplaced Sunil Narine and Rahmanullah Gurbaz early however an unbeaten 97-run stand between Shreyas and Venkatesh helped KKR chase down a goal with 38 balls remaining.Â
Venkatesh Iyer scored 51* off 28 balls whereas Shreyas top-scored with 58* off simply 24 balls. Shreyas completed the sport early by smashing Travis Head for 4 consecutive boundaries, together with three sixes, within the 14th over. Starc bagged the Player of the Match award for his sensational spell in powerplay.Â
In the Qualifier 2, Sunrisers Hyderabad will tackle the winner from tomorrow’s Eliminator between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium on May 24.Â
Kolkata Knight Riders Playing XI: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy.
Sunrisers Hyderabad Playing XI: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma (substituted by Sanvir Singh), Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Pat Cummins(c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth, T Natarajan.
