Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) finished third in the Indian Premier League (IPL) after posting a total of 113 against Sunrises Hyderabad (SRH) in the final match of the 2024 season.
KKR bowlers led by Andre Russell gave a masterclass in pace and accuracy as they secured a comfortable win.
SRH’s innings crumbled after the outstanding opening pair of Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head were dismissed in the first two innings. This sparked a consistent bowling attack from KKR, exploiting the situation to perfection.
Andre Russell was a 3-19 standout performer. He was supported by Harshit Rana and Mitchell Starc, who took two wickets each. Starc in particular impressed with his spell of 2 for 14 and took full advantage of the cover situation.
The SRH batting line-up never hit the ground running, with Heinrich Klaasen, Rahul Tripathi and Nitish Kumar Reddy failing to convert their starts into big scores. At the end of the Powerplay, SRH slumped to 40 for 3, a situation they never recovered from.
Mitchell Starc’s first spell was particularly impressive as Abhishek Sharma was caught late and bailed out. Travis Head soon sent a fuller to wicketkeeper Rahmanullah Gurbaz off Vaibhav Arora. Kell’s dismissal was his third duck in the last four matches and ended his IPL season on a disappointing note.
Rahul Tripathi fought against Starc’s extra pace and bounce, eventually succumbing to the ball coming out of the pocket for a simple catch. Starc proved his worth with a figure of 3-0-14-2 as KKR broke again SRH in the Powerplay itself.
After Powerplay, Heinrich Klaasen tried to balance the round but fell from 17 to 16. Harshit Rana and Andre Russell were tougher, fired Nitish Reddy and Aiden Markram and turned off all hope of a fightback. SRH were eventually bowled out for 113 in 18.3 overs, the lowest first total in recent IPL history.
The lowest total in an IPL final was 129/8 by Mumbai Indians against Rising Pune Supergiant in 2017, a match in which MI managed just one win. In contrast, KKR won more decisively.
KKR’s playing XI consists of Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wicketkeeper), Sunil Narine, Venkates Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (captain), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana and Varun Chakraborty. Cast: Anukul Roy, Manish Pandey, Nitish Rana, KS Bharat and Sherfane Rutherford.
