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 in the IPL 2024 title clash at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday.
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.
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.
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.
Brief Scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 113 in 18.3 overs (Pat Cummins 24, Aiden Markram 20; Andre Russell 3-19, Mitchell Starc 2-14) against Kolkata Knight Riders.