IPL 2024: Starc, Shreyas, Venkatesh steer KKR into final after eight-wicket win over SRH

Ahmedabad, May 21 (IANS) Unbeaten half-centuries by captain Shreyas Iyer (58*) and Venkatesh Iyer (51*) guided Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to a crushing eight-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Qualifier 1 and place in the final of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at Narendra Modi Stadium here on Tuesday.

Hyderabad will have another chance to face KKR in the final as they will next take on the winner of the Eliminator match between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Chennai on Friday.

Chasing 160, openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Sunil Narine gave KKR an electric start in the Powerplay overs as the due scored runs at a run rate of over 10 runs per over.

The first-wicket partnership lasted for 44 runs in 20 balls before T. Natrajan made inroads in the fourth over. The pacer removed Gurbaz at the score of 23 to bring the side back in the game after the thundering start in the chase.

Venkatesh Iyer joined Narine in the middle and kept the momentum going as they added 23 runs before Pat Cummins got Narine (21) in his first over into the attack just after the powerplay.

Shreyas Iyer walked out to bat at No. 4 and built the match-winning partnership for the side that allowed them to chase the total with 38 balls to spare.

Shreyas (58*) and Venkatesh (51*) accumulated an unbeaten 97-run partnership for the third wicket and also smashed their individual fifties during the successful run-chase. Both players hit four sixes and five fours each as they went berserk to take their side to the final.

Earlier, KKR restricted Sunrisers Hyderabad to 159 all out in 19.3 overs after the latter decided to bat first.

Hyderabad did not get the ideal start of the match as they lost attacking opener Travis Head again for a duck. Things got worse well inside the Powerplay as they lost three more wickets in the first six overs.

Pacer Mitchell Starc was on a roll as he got three of the four wickets in the powerplay. Abhishek Sharma (3), Nitish Reddy (9). and Shahbaz Ahmed (0) were picked cheaply as Hyderabad's batters faltered in the high-pressure game. SRH were 45/4 after six overs.

However, Rahul Tripathi and Heinrich Klaasen's presence in the middle gave some respite for the franchise as they played their shots freely despite being under pressure. The duo stitched a quickfire 62-run partnership off 37 balls as Tripathi struck a 29-ball fifty before Varun Chakaravarthy broke the partnership in the 11th over. Klaasen departed after playing a knock of 32 runs.

Abdul Samad joined Tripathi to further boost the score but a mix-up in the middle of the pitch ended the latter's innings on 55. His knock included seven fours and a six. In the late middle overs, SRH failed to recover from the situation and kept on losing wickets as Sunil Narine and Harshit Rana also joined the party for KKR. In the end, captain Pat Cummins played a cameo knock of 30 runs off 24 balls to take his side past the 150-run mark. His late effort was put to an end by Andre Russell in the final over of the innings.

For KKR, Starc was the pick of the bowlers, returning with figures of 3-34 while Chakaravarthy snapped two scalps.

Brief scores:

Sunrisers Hyderabad 159 all out in 19.3 overs (Rahul Tripathi 55, Heinrich Klaasen 32; Mitchell Starc 3/34, Varun Chakaravarthy 2-26) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 164/2 in 13.4 overs (Shreyas Iyer 58*, Venkatesh Iyer 51*; T. Natarajan 1-22) by eight wickets.

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