Kolkata Knight Riders’ pace battery thrived, helping the side thump Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight wickets in the final of IPL 2024 to claim their third IPL title on Sunday at MA Chidambaram Stadium. Extraordinarily elegant performance from Mitchell Starc, knocking down dangerous Abhishek Sharma early on, laid the foundation for what turned out to be a breathtaking conclusion. 

Having registered a challenging return to the high-profile tournament, Mitchell Starc hit his straps at the right time. It was a low-scoring game that saw SRH struggle to put up runs after deciding to bat.  

SRH, batting first, struggled against the KKR’s disciplined and aggressive bowling attack led by Mitchell Strac and Andre Russell. From the outset, KKR’s bowlers kept the pressure on, with the early wickets of destructive openers Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head. KKR never allowed Hyderabad to settle into a rhythm. 

The standout performance from Mitchell Starc and Andre Russell, who truly delivered match-winning performances with the ball to claim two and three wickets respectively, applied relentless pressure and crippled SRH's top order. Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakarvarthy also inflicted more pain, taking two and one wicket each respectively to bowl out SRH for (113) in just (18.3) overs. Aiden Markram and Pat Cummins were the top-scorers for SRH, scoring (20) and (24) respectively. 

Chasing (114) for victory, KKR had a breezy start, with Rahmanullah Gurbaz hitting (39) off (32) and cracking five boundaries and two sixes. However, power hitter Sunil Narine didn’t get going, falling victim to Pat Cummins. Meanwhile, Venkatesh Iyer wasted no time in capitalizing on the powerplay, hitting all over the park to play a masterclass knock of (52*) off (26), involving four boundaries and three sixes. Venkatesh Iyer and skipper Shreyas Iyer remained unbeaten on (52) and (6) respectively as KKR raced to their third IPL title victory with (57) balls to spare.