And into the IPL 2024 Final, the Kolkata Knight Riders go. The table-toppers have been the best side in the tournament so far, and they played like that in the KKR vs SRH Qualifier 1. A comfortable 8-wicket victory in just 13.4 overs has seen Knights storm into their fourth IPL Final.
A big reason behind their success were the two players who hadn’t done well until today. Mitchell Starc and Shreyas seemed to have saved their best for last, and with much on the line, the big stars stood up when it mattered the most.
KKR vs SRH Player Ratings: Which players scored 10/10 in Qualifier 1?
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Travis Head (0/10): A silver duck to start and drop a dolly at point to let Shreyas Iyer off the hook to end an abysmal outing. Although his drop may not have turned things around, it would have meant that KKR would have to earn that victory and not cruise across the line.
Abhishek Sharma (2/10): With his partner Head gone, the onus to give a smashing start fell on the Indian southpaw. But, unfortunately for him and SRH, he perished after a low score 3(4).
Rahul Tripathi (7.5/10): An incredible knock of 55(35) that was unfortunately overshadowed by the batter’s poor on-field awareness. He first got himself run-out which led to a collapse, and then a collision with Heinrich Klassen led to Shreyas being dropped.
Nitish Reddy (2/10): A forgettable performance where he failed to arrest the powerplay collapse, scoring 9(10) and bowling a poor 13-run over.
Heinrich Klaasen (6.5/10): The wicketkeeper batter upped the tempo and gave SRH fans a glimmer of hop, only to fall into Varun Chakaravarthy’s trap.
Abdul Samad (5/10): The finisher could only muster a 16(12), with his teammates falling like flies.
Shahbaz Ahmed (0/10): A golden duck for the southpaw all-rounder followed and ended his day as Cummins’ didn’t hand him in the ball.
Sanvir Singh (0/10): Another all-rounder who scored a golden duck and didn’t get a chance to bowl.
Pat Cummins (6.5/10): The SRH skipper managed to score 33 runs for the final wicket with Viyaskanth and then returned an expensive 1-wicket spell.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/10): The pacer started his match with 0(4) and then failed to take a wicket in his 3-over spell despite starting with a great first over.
Vijayakanth Viyaskanth (2/10): The Sri Lankan helped SRH get to 159 but failed with the ball, giving away 22 off 2 overs.
T Natarajan (8/10): The only SRH bowler who looked at his best. He gave his side the first breakthrough and was their most economical bowler, but he couldn’t do much on his own.
IPL 2024
Kolkata Knight Riders
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (8/10): In his first match, the wicketkeeper started where Phil Salt stopped, scoring a quickfire 23(14) and giving KKR a flying start.
Sunil Narine (6/10): Not his best performance, but still enough to take his side through. The mystery spinner bowled a costly spell (40/1) but stitched a 44-run stand with Gurbaz to kick things off.
Venkatesh Iyer (9.5/10): Shreyas may have top-scored, but it was Venky who killed the chase. Coming in to bat after two wickets fell, the southpaw and his intent ensured that SRH never got into the game.
Shreyas Iyer (10/10): An incredible display of captaincy and batting from the KKR skipper. He gave Starc three overs up front, used Varun and Vaibhav perfectly, and even placed a slip in the 16th over. But it was batting that stole the shine off his leadership skills. He ended with a strike rate of 241.67 and was the highest scorer of the match.
Andre Russell (6.5/10): The West Indian all-rounder wrapped up the inning and earlier claimed the vital clash of Abhishek Sharma.
Mitchell Starc (9.5/10): After a disappointing league stage, the left-arm pacer produced a match-defining spell (3/34) that broke SRH’s back in a way that they were able to make a return.
Vaibhav Arora (7.5/10): The crucial wicket of Abhishek went to him, and he managed to do what he was brought in to do: strike in the powerplay.
Harshit Rana (8/10): Coming after three wickets had already fallen, the pacer kept things tight (1/27) and got SRH’s finisher Abdul Samad as well.
Varun Chakaravarthy (9/10): The mystery spinner bossed the middle overs and trapped the big fish, Heinrich Klaasen, in his trap. He later sent Bhuvneshwar Kumar into the hut and finished with the figures 4-0-26-2.
Editor's Pick
Top Stories
