Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) secured their third Indian Premier League (IPL) title by defeating Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 8 wickets in the final showdown at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
Chasing a modest target of 114 runs, the Shreyas Iyer-led side delivered a commanding performance, clinching victory in just 10.3 overs.
KKR's chase began steadily, with 5 runs accrued from the opening over. However, in the second over, they suffered a setback as opener Sunil Narine departed, caught by Shabaz off a delivery from Pat Cummins, shortly after hitting a maximum. Narine managed to score 6 runs from just 2 deliveries before his dismissal.
The Iyer-Gurbaz Winning Partnership
Venkatesh Iyer and Rahmanullah Gurbaz forged a formidable partnership in the middle, amassing 91 runs off just 45 balls before Gurbaz fell to Cummins after scoring 39 runs from 32 deliveries.
With only 12 runs required off 67 balls, skipper Shreyas Iyer joined the fray, opening his account with a boundary. Meanwhile, as the target narrowed to 4 runs for victory, Venkatesh Iyer reached his fifty in a mere 24 balls and then delivered the winning run, securing the title for his team.
First Innings' Drama
In the first innings, Andre Russell (3-19), Mitchell Starc (2-14) & Harshit Rana (2-24) shined in a stellar bowling show as Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) bowled out Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for just 113.
On a red-soil pitch, only winning the toss was the lone right thing for SRH as they never got any partnership or momentum to post the lowest total in an IPL final. Starc and Vaibhav Arora bowled consistently in the good length area, and had the ball swinging continuously, followed by others getting grip to leave SRH in tatters.
Such was the fantastic bowling show that every KKR bowler had at least one wicket against their names. KKR now need to chase down 114 to win their third IPL title. Starc gave KKR a bright start from the word go when he hit Abhishek Sharma’s top of off-stump with a delivery which began from leg-stump and then nipped away sharply.
SRH Batters Crumbled
In the next over, Arora’s seaming across delivery resulted in Travis Head nicking behind for a golden duck. After early movement, Starc bowled a short cross-seam delivery on which Rahul Tripathi tried to flick, but gave a massive top edge to mid-wicket fielder.
Aiden Markram and Nitish Kumar Reddy looked to counter-attack with four quick boundaries. But there was no stopping KKR as Harshit Rana bowled three slower balls, before bowling a nipping away seam-up delivery which took Reddy’s edge on the drive behind to keeper.
Markram was next to fall, pulling to long-on off a short ball with extra bounce from Russell.
Last Nail in the Coffin
Wickets continued to crumble for SRH as Shahbaz Ahmed top-edged a sweep to short fine leg off Varun Chakaravarthy, followed by impact player Abdul Samad edging away from his body to keeper off Russell and Heinrich Klaasen played on to his stumps off a slower ball from Harshit.
A few boundaries from captain Pat Cummins, who top-scored with 24, took SRH past 100. But he and Jaydev Unadkat fell in quick succession as one of the most attacking batting line-ups of the tournament folded for 113.
With inputs from IANS.
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