The two-time champions of the Indian Premier League, Kolkata Knight Riders, rode a wave of dominance led by Mitchell Starc as they defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight wickets.
The Mitchell Starc-powered Kolkata Knight Riders sailed into the IPL final after defeating Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight wickets in Qualifier 1 on Tuesday. Starc delivered a spectacular opening burst of three wickets in the powerplay, breaking the back of SRH’s dangerous batting. They were finally bowled out for 159 in 19.3 overs, with Rahul Tripathi making a crucial 55, Heinrich Klaasen (32) and Pat Cummins (30) also fighting hard.
On a benign pitch in boiling hot conditions, SRH’s resistance faded as KKR smashed the simple 160-run goal in only 13.4 overs, with skipper Shreyas Iyer (58 not out off 24) and Venkatesh Iyer (51 not out off 28) leading them home.
On Sunday, KKR will play in their fourth IPL final, this time in Chennai.
SRH, who edged out Rajasthan Royals on the penultimate day of the league stage to finish second in the points table, will now travel to Chennai for another shot at making the summit clash with the Qualifier 2 on May 24.
The Pat Cummins-led team will meet the winner of the Eliminator between the Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Wednesday.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (23) executed his duty to perfectly in his first game of the season, grabbing two key catches behind the wicket and scoring a quickfire 14-ball 23 at the top, including two sixes and fours.
Chasing a subpar target, KKR quickly reached their fifty.
Soon after the powerplay that brought Shreyas and Venkatesh together, Sunil Narine, 21, passed away. To complete a convincing victory, they scored 97 runs for the third wicket.
In the tenth over, Heinrich Klaasen, the keeper for SRH, was caught off guard by a paddle sweep that Shreyas, too, had struck lucky with.
Though Klaasen was almost in a collision with Rahul Tripathi, the short midwicket fielder, who was racing for the ball, he was unable to hang onto it.
Shortly after, Head offered the KKR captain another lifeline as he fumbled a regular catch off T Natarajan in the 11th over, making things worse for SRH.
If Shreyas was happy to tinker with the ball and stash the occasional ball for boundaries, Venkatesh outscored his captain with a quick half-century that came off just 28 balls.
But with a flurry of boundaries to close off the game, Shreyas passed his younger companion. On 51 off 28 balls, Venkatesh, for his part, remained unblemished with five fours and four sixes.
Starc, an Australian speedster of notable stature, had previously experienced advantages from applying his fundamental ability to bowl quickly and swing the ball. He gave KKR the early advantage in the match by rattling the stumps of SRH Marauder Head on the opening delivery.
Third most runs scored in the IPL As he launched himself into a ferocious heave against his countryman, who pitched and knocked down the off and middle stumps to dispatch the batter for a second straight duck, head was everywhere.
Additionally, Starc put KKR well in charge during the powerplay by dismissing Nitish Reddy (9) and forcing Shahbaz Ahmed (0) to chop one onto his wickets.
After Head was eliminated from the game early, SRH looked to Abhishek Sharma to carry them through, but the left-hander was also limited to a poor performance.
This season, Abhishek, who has more often than not shown off his ability to read gaps and produce fantastic shots, played one weakly towards cover, where Andre Russell perfectly timed his leap and used both of his hands to finish off Vaibhav Arora.
