Hello and a warm welcome to yet another blog on the daily match reviews on this year’s IPL. Here I will write on the game played between the Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, with the victory getting a ticket to the final. So let’s get started!
Shreyas Iyer won the toss and opted to field first. This worked wonders as again Head was dismissed for a duck but the difference for SRH compared to their previous game was even Abhishek fell early. Somehow Tripathi held one crease as Starc and the KKR spinners were absolutely unstoppable. Tripathi played a superb knock as they were set to get 180 but a freak run-out dented SRH’s chances of winning the game as Cummins somehow got them to 159. Since Salt was called for international duty, Gurbaz opened with Narine but there was no change in the intent as the KKR openers killed the game by the powerplay and the two Iyers, Shreyas and Venkatesh applied some powerplay finishes as KKR absolutely trashed SRH with about 6 overs spare.
SRH got a taste of their own medicine, and this match proved that every action has an equal and opposite reaction SRH did thrash teams before but they were trashed and outplayed today, hence the title (honestly accept the creativity of the title). KKR had their plans set beautifully and SRH just fell for their plans. They also did justify why they bought Starc for that price tag as he proved himself he is a match-winner and gets his complete form when it is a knock-out game. SRH maybe should have played Tripathi by the start of the tournament as he proved his worth in this game. Finally, have to give credit to Gurbaz, as he had to go home since his mom was unwell and since KKR completely relied on his services as Salt left, he stayed with them and played a vital knock for setting the tone for the Iyers to finish it, which was a little too aggressive as KKR’s juggernaut continued as they moved into the TATA IPL 2024 final. The next blog will be on the eliminator played between RCB and RR.