IPL Final: Knightmare for SRH as KKR win third IPL title

Kolkata Knight Riders won their third Indian Premier League trophy when they beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight wickets in a lop-sided final at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday night.

The IPL title returned to the KKR camp after a gap of 10 years. KKR had won the trophy in 2012 and 2014 before Sunday.

KKR’s bowlers, led by Mitchell Starc and then later Andre Russell, clipped the wings of SRH, restricting them to just 113, the lowest-ever score in an IPL final. The KKR batters made merry and romped home in the 11th over to spark celebrations in the camp.

Starc (2/14), Russell (3/19) and Harshit Rana (2/24) led the rout with the ball, while Venkatesh Iyer (52* off 26 balls) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (39 off 32 balls) shone with the bat.

After SRH was restricted to 113, it was just a matter of time before the final went on its course. Although Sunil Narine fell cheaply, Gurbaz and Venkatesh sent the SRH bowlers on a leather hunt.

Venkatesh was in no mood to relent. He sent Bhuvneshwar Kumar for two sixes and one boundary and then dealt T Natrajan with disdain, smashing him for three boundaries and one six.

KKR raced to 72 at the end of the powerplay, the highest in an IPL final, and from there, there was only one way the match could go.

Venkatesh Iyer brought up a 24-ball half-century and KKR captain Shreyas Iyer joined him in the middle after Gurbaz’s departure to ensure a facile win.

Opting to bat first, SRH were off to a disastrous start, losing their openers Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head with just six runs on the board.

Abhishek was castled in the fifth ball of the innings by a beauty from Starc, a delivery that opened the southpaw and went on to hit the top of off stump.

Head was soon dismissed for a first-ball duck to a beautiful outswinger from Vaibhav Arora as KKR stamped an early authority in the match.

SRH were in all sorts of trouble when Starc sent Rahul Tripathi back to the hut to leave them reeling at 21/3 in the fifth over. The KKR bowlers took help from the swing on offer as they went with a probing line and length, to which the SRH batters had no answer for.

Harshit Rana sent Nitish Reddy (13) back to the hut and Russell accounted for Aiden Markram in his first over as SRH slipped to 62/5 in the 11th over.

Skipper Pat Cummins played a small cameo (24 off 19 balls) to help SRH cross the 100-run mark, but, whatever SRH could manage was only going to too less in an IPL final.

Brief scores: SRH 113 in 18.3 overs (Pat Cummins 24, Aiden Markram 20, Andre Russell 3/19, Mitchell Starc 2/14, Harshit Rana 2/24) lost to KKR 114/2 in 10.3 overs (Venkatesh Iyer 52*, Rahmanullah Gurbaz 39).