Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad to get to the fourth IPL Final.

With an eight-wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad, the two-time champion Kolkata Knight Riders team, anchored by Mitchell Starc, cruised into the IPL final.

 

 

 

With an eight-wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad on Tuesday in Qualifier 1, the two-time champion Kolkata Knight Riders, inspired by Mitchell Starc, cruised into the IPL final. In the powerplay, Starc produced an opening burst of three wickets to compromise the aggressive batting of SRH. They were eventually bowled out for a meager 159 in 19.3 overs, despite some outstanding fighting from Pat Cummins (30) and Heinrich Klaasen (32). Rahul Tripathi scored a crucial 55.SRH's resistance gave up on a kind surface in hot weather as KKR easily achieved the target of 160 runs in just 13.4 overs, led by captain Shreyas Iyer (58 not out from 24) and Venkatesh Iyer (51 not out from 28).

In order to finish second in the points standings, SRH overcame Rajasthan Royals on the last day of the league stage. They will now go to Chennai in an attempt to qualify for the summit match, which is scheduled for May 24.

On Wednesday, the Pat Cummins-led team will play the Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru winner of the eliminator.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz (23) performed brilliantly in his maiden game of the season, making two vital grabs behind the wicket and scoring a rapid 23 off of 14 balls at the top that included two sixes and as many fours.

In a flash, KKR reached their fifty after pursuing a subpar goal.

Shortly after the powerplay that united Venkatesh and Shreyas, Sunil Narine, 21, passed away. They finished with a comprehensive victory, putting on 97 runs for the third wicket.

Moreover, Shreyas was lucky because in the tenth over, a paddle sweep from Viyaskanth Vijaykanth bounced off SRH keeper Heinrich Klaasen, who went for the catch.

Although Klaasen had the ball in his grip and was on the verge of colliding with Rahul Tripathi, the short midwicket fielder, he was unable to cling 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 flawless with five fours and four sixes.

Previously, Starc, the lanky Australian speedster, benefited from using his primary ability of bowling quickly and swinging the ball. On the second delivery of the match, he set the tone in favour of KKR by cracking the stumps of SRH Marauder Head.

Third-highest run scorer in the IPL, Head was all over the place as he launched into a wild heave against his countryman, who pitched and knocked down the off and middle stumps to dismiss the batter for a second straight duck. However, the ball nipped away from him.

Along with dismissing Nitish Reddy (9) and forcing Shahbaz Ahmed (0) to chop one onto his wickets, Starc also placed KKR well in control during the powerplay.

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.