Watch cricket video highlights between Kolkata Knight Riders vs Sunrisers Hyderabad. Indian Premier League 2024 Qualifier 1, played at Ahmedabad.
At the IPL 2024, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma are accustomed to going off and killing games in the first six overs. However, it was Mitchell Starc who dominated the powerplay in the first qualifier in Ahmedabad that guaranteed the Kolkata Knight Riders’ place in Sunday’s IPL final in Chennai. Following an opening spell of 3-0-22-3 in which Starc ripped through the SRH top order, Varun Chakravarthy took charge in the middle overs and helped dismiss SRH for 159 in 19.3 overs.
With more than six overs remaining, KKR achieved the objective because to the undefeated half-centuries produced by Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer. For a chance to play KKR again in the championship game, Sunrisers Hyderabad will take on the victor of the eliminator between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Squeezed to extra cover, Starc’s first ball to Head was an outswinger. His second appeared to be angled in, but it turned and sailed away in the last moment, breaking through Head’s defenses and leaving his stumps spread. A fowl had taken his head off. Across all forms, Starc has removed Head five times, with four of those wickets coming via ducks. On a surface that had a mixture of red and black soil with some early wetness, pacer Vaibhav Arora, who was selected ahead of spinner Anukul Roy, had Abhishek Sharma scooping a ball to Andre Russell at short cover for 3.
When Starc caught Shahbaz Ahmed (0) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (9) off consecutive balls in his third over, SRH found themselves in even more danger. Rahul Tripathi speared in a yorker that struck him flat on his boot and would have cannoned into leg stump, giving Starc another opportunity to remove him in his second over. However, KKR chose not to request a review, and SRH proceeded to complete the powerplay on 45 for 4. In the 14 innings of the IPL 2024, SRH has only scored less runs in the powerplay twice.
With a half-century, Tripathi, who remained at No. 3, salvaged SRH’s innings. He created scoring opportunities by fusing creativity with force. He blasted a bouncer from Harshit Rana for six and smashed Arora over midwicket. With a reverse sweep of Varun for four balls, he achieved his fifty off just 29 balls. But Tripathi could not hold on as Russell pounced on a miscommunication to dismiss him for 55 off 35 balls. Tripathi was so upset that he spent a considerable amount of time sitting on the steps in Ahmedabad with his head buried in his knee. Tripathi’s shot encapsulated SRH’s evening.
Heinrich Klaasen had dismissed Sunil Narine for 16 off of eight balls; however, Varun Chakravarthy, the other mystery spinner for KKR, struck in his first over to end Klaasen’s innings at 32 off of 21 balls. As Klaasen pulled a catch to deep midwicket, Varun darted one into the ground and prevented him from getting beneath the length. In the 16th over, he then trapped Bhuvneshwar Kumar leg before wicket with a bad ‘un, costing KKR only one run. In 27 IPL innings since the 2023 season began, it was Varun’s 40th wicket. Varun has taken more wickets than any other spinner throughout this time. SRH was on the verge of being bowled out for a below-140 score at 126 for 9 in 16 overs, but Cummins’ 30 off 24 balls helped them reach a more reasonable 159.
In his maiden appearance of the season, Rahmanullah Gurbaz eased himself in at bat after performing admirably behind the wickets. Gurbaz took over in Phil Salt’s place, who had left the IPL to join the England team, and scored 23 runs off of 14 balls. After hitting four boundaries, T Natarajan had him holing out in his first over when he attempted a fifth. After three overs, Cummins removed Narine for 21 off 16 balls, but the damage had already been done by KKR’s openers, who slashed 63 runs off their target during the powerplay. The Iyers, led by skipper Shreyas and Venkatesh, then turned their chase into a cinch as they put up an unbroken 97 partnership for the third wicket off only 44 balls. Both batsmen reached half-centuries along the way, but it was Shreyas who brought the innings to a spectacular close in the 14th over, batting a sequence of 6, 4, 6, 6 off Head.
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