Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) became the first finalist of the IPL 2024 as they attained a one-sided win over Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Qualifier 1 by 8 wickets on May 21 in Ahmedabad.
SRH captain Pat Cummins won the toss and chose to bat first. Mitchell Starc struck early with three quick wickets in the forms of Travis Head (0), Nitish Reddy (9), and Shahbaz Ahmed (0). Then Rahul Tripathi (55) and Heinrich Klaasen (32) brought SRH back into the game.
However, Tripathi was tragically run out, while Klaasen followed soon.
Sunrisers captain Pat Cummins, however, played a crucial knock of 30 off 24 while also putting on a vital 33-run stand for the last wicket with Vijayakanth Viyaskanth to take SRH to 159 in the end. Apart from Mitchell Starc’s 3/34, Varun Chakravarthy took 2 wickets.
In response, Sunil Narine (21) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (23) added 44 runs in just 3.2 overs. Though Pat Cummins and T Natarajan dismissed both openers, KKR captain Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer didn’t give another chance to the SRH bowlers.
They completely dominated the opposition in an unbeaten 97-run partnership in only 44 balls. Venkatesh Iyer remained not out on 51 with 5 fours and 4 sixes, while Shreyas Iyer made 58* with 4 sixes and 5 fours.
KKR won by 8 wickets and 38 balls remaining and stormed into the final of the IPL 2024. SRH will have another chance to make it into the finals, when they will play Qualifier 2 on May 24 in Chennai to face the winner the of Eliminator between RR and RCB.
The cricket fraternity was all praises for a ruthless win by KKR and their qualification into the IPL 2024 final on social media.
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