Kolkata Knight Riders storm into IPL final beats Sunrisers Hyderabad by 8 wickets

SRH beaten by 8 wickets in Qualifier 1: Strac claims 3: Iyer duo hit half centuries

Ahmedabad: A spirited Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) thrashed Sunrisers Hyderabad by 8 wickets to reach the final of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. The two-time champion reached the target 160 in just 13.4 overs losing 2 wickets  in Qualifier 1 at Narendra Modi Stadium here on Tuesday night.

KKR’s opening duo Rahmanullah Gurbaz (23) and Sunil Narine (21) added 44 runs in just 20 balls for the first wicket to build the foundation of the innings. Then Venkatesh Iyer and captain Shreyas Iyer finished the game in style. The captain made 58 runs from 24 balls with 4 fours while Venkatesh struck 51.

Earlier, KKR restricted Sunrisers Hyderabad to 159 all out in 19.3 overs.

Opting to bat first, Hyderabad did not get the ideal start of the match as they lost attacking opener Travis Head again for a duck. Things got worse well inside the powerplay as they lost three more wickets in the first six overs.

Pacer Mitchell Starc was on a roll as he got three of the four wickets in the powerplay. Abhishek Sharma (3), Nitish Reddy (9), and Shahbaz Ahmed (0) were picked cheaply as Hyderabad's batter faltered in the high-pressure game. SRH were 45/4 after six overs.

However, Rahul Tripathi and Heinrich Klaasen's presence in the middle gave some respite for the franchise as they played their shots freely despite being under pressure. The duo stitched a quickfire 62-run partnership off 37 balls as Tripathi struck a 29-ball fifty before Varun Chakaravarthy broke the partnership in the 11th over. Klaasen departed after playing a knock of 32 runs.

Abdul Samad joined Tripathi to take the score further but a mix-up in the middle of the pitch wrapped the latter's innings on 55. His knock included seven fours and a six. In the late middle overs, SRH failed to recover from the situation and kept on losing wickets as Sunil Narine and Harshit Rana also joined the party for KKR.

In the end, captain Pat Cummins played a cameo knock of 30 runs off 24 balls to take his side past the 150-run mark. His late effort was put to an end by Andre Russell in the final over of the innings. For KKR, Starc was the pick of the bowlers after returning with figures of 3-34 while Chakaravarthy snapped two scalps.

Brief scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 159/10 in 19.3 overs (Rahul Tripathi 55, Heinrich Klaasen 32; Mitchell Starc 3-34, Varun Chakaravarthy 2-26) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 164/2 in 13.4 (Shreyas Iyer 58no, Venkatesh Iyer 51no). Agencies

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