What a clinical performance by the Kolkata Knight Riders! They are deservedly crowned the 2024 Tata Indian Premier League Champions! KKR has now become only the third team to win three IPL trophies. They absolutely demolished SRH, dominating them in every aspect of the game to achieve this remarkable feat.
Let’s have a small recap of the 2024 IPL Final.
The Sunrisers won the toss and elected to bat first, which may have been their only positive moment in the game. The two explosive openers, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, walked out to the middle. Mitchell Starc opened the bowling, with the first few balls yielding no runs. Abhishek Sharma managed a double, but from then on, it was a downfall for SRH. Abhishek Sharma was bowled by a beautiful delivery from the most expensive player in IPL history. Then, on the first ball of the next over, Travis Head was dismissed for a golden duck by Vaibhav Arora.
Now at the crease were Rahul Tripathi and Aiden Markram. For a brief period, it seemed things were looking up for the Sunrisers, thanks to a few boundaries by Tripathi and Markram and later on Nitish Kumar Reddy. However, the momentum was short-lived. Rahul Tripathi was dismissed on the second ball of the 4th over while attempting to hit a boundary. Soon after, Aiden Markram tried to clear the boundary but was caught at long-on by Mitchell Starc.
A few overs before Markram’s dismissal, the Birthday Boy and Emerging Player of the 2024 Tata IPL, Nitish Kumar Reddy, had a promising start. He hit a six over fine leg and a nice cut shot for four, but then nicked the ball to wicket-keeper Rahmanullah Gurbaz, ending his brief stint at the crease.
After that, Shahbaz Ahmed became the next victim of KKR’s brutal bowling. Attempting to sweep Varun Chakravarthy’s delivery towards the fence, he edged it straight to Sunil Narine at short fine leg. Then came the Impact Player, Abdul Samad, but unfortunately, he could not make any sort of impact, getting out after scoring only 4 runs.
Hope emerged when Heinrich Klaasen came out to bat after Nitish Kumar Reddy got out. However, Klaasen found himself stranded at the non-striker’s end, watching his teammates get out one by one. This mounting pressure ultimately led him to attempt a slog on the first ball of the 15th over, only to inside edge it onto the stumps.
Now it was the Captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad, Pat Cummins, who was perhaps the only one who could play a couple of deliveries with a strike rate above 100. He was there along with the tail-enders of the team: Jaydev Unadkat and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Cummins managed to hit a solid 24 off 19 deliveries, which included 2 boundaries and a six. He got a lifeline when his Aussie mate Mitchell Starc dropped his catch, but the second time, Starc didn’t miss when Cummins tried to smash a ball into orbit. Cummins was SRH’s last dismissal, and with that KKR’s bowling rampage had ended with them bundling the Orange Army for just 113. Which meant they needed just 114 runs to win their 3rd Tata IPL Trophy.
Out came the two KKR openers: the MVP of the 2024 Tata IPL, Sunil Narine, and KKR’s wicket-keeper, Rahmanullah Gurbaz. Leading the attack for SRH was the Indian Swing King, Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Bhuvneshwar started well, but his second ball was a bit too short, giving Gurbaz the perfect opportunity to cut the ball to the boundary, earning KKR their first runs in this small chase. Bhuvneshwar conceded only 5 runs in his first over. Then came the skipper, Pat Cummins, to bowl to one of the most dynamic batsmen this season, Sunil Narine. Cummins bowled a short delivery, which Narine smashed for a six on his very first ball. However, on the next delivery, Narine attempted a swivel pull for another six but ended up giving a catch to Shahbaz Ahmed, providing SRH with a crucial wicket and possibly their only high point in the second innings. Then came the in-form KKR batsman, Venkatesh Iyer.
Venkatesh Iyer faced Bhuvneshwar Kumar for his first few balls, hitting his first delivery for four, the second for a six, and the third for a humongous 93-meter six. Iyer and Gurbaz stayed together at the crease for a while, inching closer to KKR’s third IPL title, while SRH hopelessly crawled away from their second.
When KKR were comfortably at 96 for 1, Rahmanullah Gurbaz swept the ball for a six, bringing KKR within just 12 runs of the title. However, when Gurbaz tried to sweep the ball again, he was given out LBW to Shahbaz Ahmed. At this point, though, it was too little too late for SRH.
In came the skipper, Shreyas Iyer, who has been an excellent captain for KKR this year. Previously, when Iyer was captaining DC, he led them to the Final in the 2020 edition of the IPL, but they lost to the Mumbai Indians, who became the first team to reach the milestone of 5 trophies. This time, Iyer had the perfect opportunity to stay till the end and perhaps hit the winning runs. He opened his account with a switch hit that raced to the fence.
After Shreyas Iyer’s start, Venkatesh Iyer joined the party again, by bringing up his half century in just 24 deliveries. And a few singles later, Venkatesh Iyer was back on strike, with Kolkata Knight Riders just needing a solitary run to claim their 3rd Tata IPL Title becoming only the 3rd team to win 3 titles. The finish wasn’t the most stylish finish, but it was just enough to bring the Title to the Eden Gardens for next years Tata IPL. Wondering how the finish happened? Here,
As I mentioned, not a stylish finish, but a not so great sweep shot was enough to bring KKR their 3rd Title, but nevertheless, this non-stylish finish was definately compensated in their bowling during the first innings, which was just top notch.
Well, that’s how Shreyas Iyer’s KKR recreated the magic of Gautam Gambhir’s KKR, repeating the triumph of May 26th, 2012, which gave them their first title. on May 26th, 2024, in Chepauk again, giving them their 3rd title. The only title in between was their last one, won 10 years ago on June 1st, 2014.
Congratulations to the Kolkata Knight Riders again on rampaging through SRH to earn them their 3rd Tata IPL Title!
Until Next Time!
Thank You.
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