The Knight Riders were crowned the Indian Premier League champions for the third time in history on Sunday, May 26.
KKR blew SunRisers out of water in the most one-sided IPL final, bowling Pat Cummins’s side out for 113 and chasing the target down with 57 balls and 8 wickets to spare at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. KKR’s all-round dominant show also saw the IPL 2024 final becoming the shortest title match played in the tournament in terms of the number of overs bowled — 29 overs.
Shreyas Iyer became only the second KKR captain to win the IPL title after Gautam Gambhir (2012 and 2014), who was in the dugout on Sunday as a proud mentor. In fact, Iyer is only the fifth Indian captain after MS Dhoni, Gambhir, Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya to lead a team to victory in an IPL final.
KKR reaffirmed their status as one of the most successful IPL teams. With the third title in their bag, the Knight Riders are only being CSK and Mumbai who have five titles each.
On the other hand, Pat Cummins suffered his first defeat in a major tournament final in more than a year after leading Australia to the World Test Championship and the World Cup final.
ONE-SIDED AFFAIR IN FINAL
In one of the most one-sided finals in the history of the IPL, Kolkata extended their dominance over SunRisers, beating Pat Cummins-led side for the third time in the 2024 season. It was an all-round show from the Knight Riders as SRH chose the wrong occasion to implode. Mitchell Starc showed why he is the man for the big occasion as he led KKR’s rout of SRH’s top-order, while Andre Russell, playing his first final for KKR, topped the bowling charts with 3 wickets.
Venkatesh Iyer was the star of the show with the bat for the Knight Riders as he gave SRH a dose of their own medicine, hitting a 24-ball fifty, hitting the SRH bowlers all over the park with disdain.
SunRisers were credited for revolutionising power-hitting in IPL 2024. They posted 287, the highest total in the history of the tournament, earlier in the season. However, on the big day, they were bowled out for 113, the lowest-ever team total in an IPL final. Ironically, SRH had scored 125 runs in the powerplay (first six overs) in a match in Delhi earlier in the season.
The wheels came off for SunRisers on the big day as none of their big names, including the famous opening duo of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, failed to get going. Captain Pat Cummins waged a lone battle and topped the batting chart with 24 runs. Aiden Markram and Heinrich Klaasen felt the pressure of the early wickets as KKR bowlers never allowed the pressure to release and kept the stranglehold going.
It was a collective show from KKR’s bowling unit, led by Mitchell Starc and Andre Russell. Vaibhav Arora struck in the powerplay, getting the most important wicket of Travis Head, who had hit a match-winning hundred in the last major tournament final he played in India — the ODI World Cup.
Harshit Rana, one of the finds of the IPL, picked up 2 wickets and gave away just 24 runs in four overs. Rana picked the big wicket of Heinrich Klaasen, who was not able to get going in the big final.
In response, the Knight Riders came out all guns blazing, getting to the finish line in just 9.3 overs. Venkatesh Iyer remained unbeaten on 52 off just 26 balls as he was rewarded for his bravery after KKR lost Sunil Narine early in the powerplay. Fittingly, captain Shreyas Iyer was in the middle when KKR hit the winning runs and finished off the contest.