The Kolkata Knight Riders completely dominated the Sunrisers Hyderabad to win their third IPL title at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chepauk on Sunday. The one-sided affair saw KKR restrict their opposition to just 113 runs and then knocked off the total with 57 balls to spare.
The Sunriser’s 113 was the lowest total ever by a team in the IPL Final. Five of the six bowlers used by the Knight Riders took a wicket in their first over, not allowing SRH to get any momentum in their innings.
Mitchell Starc led the way for his team, bowling one of the best spells of the tournament and picking up early wickets to put SRH on the backfoot. Andre Russell was able to come in and clean up the middle order, ending with figures of 3-19 in just 2.3 overs.
There was almost nothing of substance from any of the Sunrisers batsmen, with the top score in their innings going to captain Pat Cummins who had 24.
Venkatesh Iyer and Rahmanullah Gurbaz made quick work of the measly total, putting on a 91 run partnership in less than 8 overs. Iyer ended with a brilliant 52 not out off just 26 balls, including 4 fours and 3 sixes.
The last time Kolkata had won the IPL was back in 2014, marking a 9 year gap between titles.
They had a rocky start to the season but finished on top of the IPL standings with 9 wins, 3 losses and 2 no results.
Full Match Summary
The Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss and elected to bat first on what seemed to be a slow wicket in Chennai. To most people’s surprise, Starc was able to find swing and seam from the very first ball, whistling one past the bat of Abhishek Sharma. It wasn’t long before Starc found the wicket, bowling an unplayable delivery that pitched on leg and hit the top of off.
Travis Head, who had been the Sunrisers trump card all season, then got out for a golden duck to Vaibhav Arora in the second over. After getting on strike in the last ball of the over, Head pushed at a good length ball outside off stump and managed to get a thin edge which was taken by the keeper.
A few overs later, Starc picked up the wicket of Rahul Tripathi to leave SRH reeling at 21-3, when he top edged a ball straight to Ramandeep Singh. In dire need of a partnership, SRH got a bit of momentum with Aiden Markham and Nitish Kumar Reddy who took 17 off an Arora over.
Unfortunately for the Sunrisers couldn’t stop wickets from falling at regular intervals, as Harshit Rana and Andres Russell dislodged both Markham and Reddy in close succession. At 70-5 with 9 overs to go, the Sunrisers were in danger of not being able to bat out their 20 overs. Their only real hope seemed to be Henrich Klassen who had emerged as one of the best finishers in the tournament.
Klaasen tried to get himself in for a big finish but only managed 16 runs off his 17 balls faced. Just when it looked like he was going to turn on the after blazers, Harshit Rana got him with a sneaky off-cutter that Klassen edged into his stumps.
Without much fire power left in the tank, the Sunrisers were bowled out for 113, about 80 runs shy of what they would’ve wanted at the start of the innings.
The chase by KKR was a short one, with their only real hiccup coming when Sunil Narine got out for 6 to Cummins early on. Venkatesh Iyer came in and hit Bhuvneshwar for two straight sixes in a 20-run third over, and thenRahmanullah Gurbaz took another 20 off T Natarajan in the sixth. By the end of the powerplay KKR had already scored 72, leaving them only 42 runs to knock off with 14 overs to spare.
The total of 114 was reached with 57 balls to spare and 8 wickets in hand, making this year’s Final one of the most one-sided in history. The Man of the Match award was given to Mitchell Starc for his terrific spell of bowling that got KKR off to a great start with the ball.
