Mitchell Starc, with an amazing performance against Sunrisers Hyderabad, pushed Kolkata Knight Riders(KKR) to the IPL final by winning the Qualifier 1 match in eight wickets on Tuesday.
SRH’s formidable batting line-up was disassembled by Starc’s opening spell which claimed three wickets during the powerplay. Eventually, SRH was all out for only 159 runs in 19.3 overs with a crucial contribution of 55 from Rahul Tripathi while Heinrich Klaasen (32) and Pat Cummins (30) put up some fight.
KKR chased down a modest target of 160 runs on a flat pitch under hot conditions in just 13.4 overs as SRH fizzled out. Shreyas Iyer (58 not out off 24) and Venkatesh Iyer (51 not out off 28) led the charge to ensure an easy win.
On Sunday, KKR are now heading to Chennai for their fourth IPL final.
To make it to the qualifying stage two match to be played on May 24 at Chennai, SRH who finished second after beating Rajasthan Royals on the last day of the league stage will proceed direct from here and have another shot at it.
The team led by Pat Cummins will face either Rajasthan Royals or Royal Challengers Bengaluru in tomorrow’s Eliminator game being played here today.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (23), playing his first game this season did justice when he held onto two vital catches behind the stumps and scored a quick fire knock of 14 ball twenty three including two sixes and fours at top of order.
In no time, KKR crossed fifty chasing a below-average total set by SRH.
Shreyas’ first boundary came through third man while Narine pulled one hard behind square leg fence before getting out caught at midwicket trying to hit over long-off region where he was joined by Venkatesh.
Against SRH, Shreyas and his partner for the third wicket went on to complete a comprehensive win with their 97 runs stand.
Another luck in Shreyas’ favor as paddle sweeping off Viyaskanth Vijaykanth that hit SRH’s wicket keeper Heinrich Klaasen who was trying to catch a ball in the 10th over.
Klaasen tried to hold onto it but there was interference from Rahul Tripathi at short midwicket and also collided with him when he nearly had it within his grasp.
It kept getting worse for SRH after that when Regis Head put down an easy catch of T Natarajan off Bhuvneshwar Kumar at extra cover during the 11th over giving KKR captain a reprieve.
Venkatesh outscored his skipper with a rapid half-century which came off 28 balls while Shreyas only nudged the ball around occasionally to pick up boundaries in between.
However, Shreyas finished things off with consecutive boundaries leading them home before Venkatesh could surpass him. The latter remained unbeaten on 51 runs from 28 balls comprising five fours and four sixes in his knock as well as one dismissal that involved being caught out of bounds twice.
Earlier, Starc bowled quick and moved the ball through air as he dismissed SRH opener Travis Head with clean bowing second time in two games inside two deliveries which set the tone for KKR’s victory against them.
When Marauder Heade made another wild swing at a delivery which pitched just outside off-stump before nipping away slightly towards mid-off, IPL’s third highest run-scorer tamely had his stumps shattered leaving him with zero runs again.
Starc bounced Nitish Reddy (9) out and got Shahbaz Ahmed (0) to chop one back onto his stumps as KKR took firm control of the game in the powerplay.
When Head left early on, SRH set their sights on Abhishek Sharma but the southpaw too was bound to have a forgettable one.
Abhishek, with his nicely placed strokes and stunning hits most of the time this campaign, played a tame one towards cover where Andre Russell’s leap was timed perfectly as he used both his hands to execute the dismissal, off Vaibhav Arora.
