KKR dominated SRH in the one-sided final of IPL 2024 at Chennai on 26th May 2024. They just looked invincible and never gave any chance to the Orange team at any moment. They kept the pressure on from the first over and SRH crumbled to pieces. Right in the first over, Mitchell Starc defined the match towards KKR with a “Ball of the IPL 2024”. He dismissed Abhishek Sharma and rest became history.
IPL has been blessed to see some nail-biting finals like CSK vs MI(2019), MI vs Rising Pune Giants(2017), CSK vs GT(2023), MI vs DC(2020). But this year, SRH just submitted to KKR from the first ball and this can be classified as most boring one-sided final ever in IPL history. Almost like dominant Australian side of 2003 and 2015 in respective CWCs, KKR played exceptional cricket.
Earlier, SRH won the toss and elected to bat first. They wanted to dominate the opponent with bat as they know the pitch would help spinners after their Qualifier 2 victory against RR. KKR bowlers had different plans with Mitchell Starc sending back Abhishek Sharma in the first over. Then, Vaibhav Arora sent back Travis Head for first ball duck. Starc again sent back Rahul Tripathi(9) and none of the batters could bat with 100 strike rate.
Harshit Rana got the wicket of Nitish Kumar Reddy(13), in the next over after powerplay. Little later, Andre Russell sent back Aiden Markram(20). Rana again struck by sending back Heinrich Klaasen(16). Even Markram and Klaasen also did not bat with 100 strike rate. Captain Pat Cummins with 24 runs from 19 balls took SRH over 100. Finally, team bundled out for 113 in 18.3 overs.
Every KKR bowler got wickets while Andre Russell(3/19) got the most. In relatively easy chase, Venkatesh Iyer did not allow any kind of jerks as he took on Bhuvneshwar Kumar and T Natarajan in powerplay overs. He ended up scoring 52 runs from 26 balls at 200 strike rate where SRH big hitters failed to maintain 100 strike rate. KKR won the match by 8 wickets with 114/2 on board in 10.3 overs.
KKR just dominated SRH in every aspect and clinched their 3rd title in 4th final of IPL tournament. Mitchell Starc again proved to be the most impactful player in knockout and finals. He has been part of 9 finals in his career and every time he came on winning side. Kolkata Knight Riders even dominated SRH in the Qualifier 1 but this time they just annihilated them.
SRH should be proud of their campaign but this final loss will haunt them due to the humiliation for years. Well, we congratulate KKR, the new winners for their third title and a campaign that made the players come together as a team at important moments to seize the title.
SRK and team management made Gautham Gambhir leave LSG as mentor and join them using all their might and in the end it proved to be a masterstroke.
