Kolkata Knight Riders emerge victorious in IPL 2024, clinch third title

PTI, May 26, 2024, 10:37 PM IST

Chennai: Kolkata Knight Riders lifted their third trophy in the Indian Premier League with a crushing eight-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in a completely one-sided final here on Sunday.

Having lost the toss, KKR produced a clinical effort with the ball to dismiss SRH for 113, the lowest ever total in an IPL title clash.

KKR chased down the target of 114 with as many as 57 balls to spare. Venkatesh Iyer remained not out on 52 off 26 balls.

Mitchell Starc (2/14), Andre Russell (3/19) and Harshit Rana (2/24) were the most successful bowlers for the Knight Riders, as SRH simply failed to turn up for the big game.

Opting to bat first, SRH were off to a disastrous start as they lost their top guns Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head with just six runs on the board, with the latter getting dismissed for a first-ball duck to a beautiful outswinger.

Before that, Abhishek was bowled by Mitchell Starc on the fifth ball of the first over, a peach of a delivery opening up the left-hander before hitting the top of the off stump.

SRH were in all sorts of trouble as Starc accounted for the wicket of Rahul Tripathi to leave them reeling at 21/3 in the fifth over, the swing doing the trick for KKR bowlers early on. First-change bowler Harshit Rana continued the good work and got rid of Nitish Reddy (13).

Andre Russell dismissed Aiden Markram in his first over as SRH slipped to 62/5 in the 11th over. SRH could not recover from there.

Brief scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad: 113 all out in 18.3 overs (Pat Cummins 24; Mitchell Starc 2/14, Andre Russell 3/19, Harshit Rana 2/24). Kolkata Knight Riders: 114 for 2 in 10.3 overs (Venkatesh Iyer 52 not out).