In the Kolkata Knight Riders camp, people were screaming as well as shouting, there were tears of joy and greetings, admiration for teammates and raw emotions on full display after the team won their third IPL title by defeating a demoralized Sunrisers Hyderabad in the summit clash at Chepauk on Sunday.
As a fifty-up Venkatesh Iyer hit the winning runs in chase of a lowly 114, players were seen hurling towards the centre of the pitch in joy.
Even in the dugout, support staff led by icon Gautam Gambhir who is now a mentor could not hold back their celebrations after a decade with first ever franchise to win it.
The 43-year-old had already led his side to victory twice before under Gambhir’s leadership in 2012 and 2014 before he helped them do it again this year but this time as mentor.
It was also KKR’s fifth IPL title triumph and thus made Shreyas Iyer only fifth Indian skipper to win an IPL crown; he joined MS Dhoni (CSK), Rohit Sharma (Mumbai Indians), Gambhir (KKR) and Hardik Pandya (Mumbai Indians).
In the finale against Sunrisers, Aussie gun Mitchell Starc bowled a sensational opening spell as Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) bowled out the opposition for IPL’s lowest total of 113 in a final.
The best bowler of latest season had taken two wickets for 14 runs in response to his billing in world’s richest T20 event.
After being sold for INR247.5 million ($3.3m) to Kolkata during December auction, Starc ended up having good performance during last few days with both bat and ball including taking three wickets from Gujarat Lions’ side.
Kolkata’s batsmen found it easy despite an early departure by Sunil Narine while Rahmanullah Gurbaz who made 39 and Venkatesh Iyer who finished on 52 not out, put together an unbroken 91-run partnership to take their team home with 9.3 overs remaining.
Iyer, a southpaw, got to his half-century in just 24 balls and then scored runs that led to the victory for Kolkata which remained as the table leaders with 20 points at the end of league phase.
