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It was a Knightmare for Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Chepauk on Sunday. They faced the dominance of Kolkata Knight Riders earlier in the same week, with the result being the same in Ahmedabad and hence expected to bounce back stronger with clever tactical changes. But the script remained the same with Kolkata inflicting an emphatic eight-wicket win at the MA Chidambaram Stadium to lift their third IPL title.
Both teams got what they wanted at toss, with Sunrisers opting to bat first, given their better record through the season in defending totals. However, Mitchell Starc and Vaibhav Arora inflicted early damage with the new ball, dismissing both the openers in quick time before Harshit Rana outfoxed Nitish Reddy while Andre Russell broke the South African partnership between Heinrich Klaasen and Aiden Markram. SRH were eventually folded for just 113 runs, the lowest even score by an IPL team in the final, in 18.3 overs.
In response, Rahmanullah Gurbaz got KKR off to a flier with some boundaries while Sunil Narine departed early, Venkatesh Iyer then came out all guns blazing – 4, 6, 6 against Bhuvneshwar Kumar and then 4, 4, 6, 4, against Natarajan as Kolkata amassed the highest ever powerplay score in the final – 72 for one. Iyer continued his sublime knock to smash a 24-ball fifty as Kolkata wrapped up the chase with 57 balls to spare.
After the win, as captain Shreyas Iyer collected the trophy from BCCI president Roger Binny and board secretary Jay Shah, he recreated Lionel Messi’s iconic FIFA World Cup celebration moment with his team. Notably, Messi had led Argentina to a title win back in December 2022 after a thrilling win against France in Qatar.
Shreyas labelled Kolkata as the ‘invincibles’ after they scripted a six-match winning streak, starting from April 29, en route to winning the trophy. They earlier finished as the league toppers with nine wins in 14 games before beating SRH in Qualifier 1 in Ahmedabad last week to make the final.
“We played like invincibles throughout the season. There’s so much to cherish right now. It is pleasing, the performance has been flawless throughout. I am running out of words right now. We have been tremendous from game one, we stepped up today. All we demanded from ourselves was to back each other whatever the situation is. The game could have either way. They have been playing phenomenal cricket – SRH – throughout the season,” he said in the post-match presentation.
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