In a totally one-sided final in the history of the IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) led by Indian cricketer Shreyas Iyer beat Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by eight wickets to win their third title in front of a packed audience at Chennai yesterday.
It was KKR’s fourth IPL final having won the title in 2012 and 2014 under the leadership of Gautam Gambhir who is their present coach.
A fantastic display of bowling by KKR saw them roll over SRH for 113 – the lowest total in an IPL final with seamers Andre Russell (3/19), Mitchell Starc (2/14) and Harshit Rana (2/24) doing the main damage.
It was poor batting and shot selection by SRH batsmen that led to their downfall. Only Aiden Markram (20 off 23 balls) and SRH skipper Pat Cummins (24 off 19 balls) made any impact with the bat.
When it came to KKR’s batting Rahmanullah Gurbaz (39 off 32 balls, 5 fours, 2 sixes) and Venkatesh Iyer (52* off 26 balls, 4 fours, 3 sixes) made short work of the small target figuring in a 91-run stand for the second wicket off 45 balls to see them home with 57 balls to spare.
