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IPL 2024 final was a tale of two cities: Hyderabad played like it was a final, Kolkata, like any other match…

Published at :May 27, 2024 at 2:13 PM
Modified at :May 27, 2024 at 2:32 PM
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(Courtesy : BCCI)

Punit Tripathi

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Shreyas Iyer-led KKR won the one-sided match against SRH by eight wickets in the IPL 2024 final.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have won their third Indian Premier League (IPL) trophy after a long gap of 10 years, furthering their stake as one of the strongest IPL sides in the history of the now 16-year-old tournament. The well-grilled team played this season to its strengths and in return, went home with the trophy. On the other hand, Hyderabad was prepared to play a final after eight years, and they seemed to have prepared a little too much.

Before you jump the gun, hear us out. This team has taught not just India, but the rest of the world a new format of slam-bang cricket.

What Romesh Kaluwitharana and Sanath Jayasuriya started in the 1996 World Cup was taken forward by the Sehwags, Dilshans and Gilchrists for nearly three decades. And now, what Travishek (Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma) have started will define batting in T20 cricket. Keep your lens close as the T20I World Cup approaches by the hour. However, let’s stick to the IPL final for now.

Batting

Overprepared? How? That seems to be the pertinent question raised. Let’s take it from the top. Abhishek Sharma has only faced the first ball three times this season (prior to the final). However, a lot to do with that seems to be the kind of effect Mitchell Starc has on Travis Head, the fear-mongering beast who brought nearly every bowler to his feet this season. Rewind back to May 21 (Qualifier 1). Mitchell Starc bowled his compatriot with a peach. And that’s not even a first. Look at this video:

A lot of talk has been going on about Abhishek Sharma and how his six-hitting resembles that of Yuvraj Singh. It definitely does. But the first few balls he faced from the Australian left-arm pacer set the tone for the day. Abhishek has not been reticent in his batting by any means – he has been driving everything full and has been playing the horizontals whenever the ball has dropped before the good length mark.

However, a hint of swing in the first four balls that he faced led him to get conservative, something we’ve rarely seen him do this season. The ball that crashed onto his stumps was a beauty – but Abhishek has deposited similar looking deliveries over the midwicket boundary in several matches this season. Pressure of a final or the bowler? Possibly.

Moving on to Rahul Tripathi – SRH’s best batsman in the knockouts. He had scored a tiring 55 (35) against KKR in the first qualifier and a memorable 37 (15) against RR in the all-important match before the final. These two innings saw him put the ball beyond the ropes 15 times – meaning he was batting brilliantly and was in good rhythm.

However, his attitude seemed to be a little different in the final. A snapshot of his batting at the Chepauk, an inning that lasted 13 balls, shows a solitary boundary. That too, was off a poor delivery from Starc, a length ball on Tripathi’s pads. Did the team management curtail his freedom or was it his own decision to hold onto one end? Either way, we know how poorly that ended.

Moving on to the middle order (and in situations such as this, the strength of any team). Ask any active cricket expert about Heinrich Klassen, and you’d hear flatteries such as ‘the best white-ball batter in the world’ or at least, ‘in the top 3’. And there’s no suggestion to deny that. A brute force of nature, Klassen deposits good length deliveries over the long-off boundary with unforeseen ease. Needless to say, his team needed him to go big on the centerstage.

His innings, too, was Tripathi-like. A thick outside edge brought him a solitary boundary and by the time he had played 16 balls, the South African bully had lost most of the rhythm usually associated with him. Vaibhav Arora definitely had some luck in getting the wicket, but it was poor planning from the SRH team management.

Aiden Markram, an experienced campaigner, should have been expected to stop the leakage of wickets from one end. He was the only specialist batsman in the SRH side that looked in good nick. His consecutive boundaries off Arora in the 6th over should have changed the complexion of the game. It could’ve been the clarion call for both batsmen to play their natural games. But the flow of runs was too miniscule and thus, Markram had to try the maverick against Andre Russell.

The writing was on the ball, by then.

Most of you must’ve thought this to be a bashing piece against SRH. However, this is not. We will now enlist the clear differences in the batting of KKR. First and foremost, there’s no denying the fact that dew was a key factor. Gripping the ball, getting it to swing reasonably and turning it must’ve been tough in the second half of the game. However, kudos to the KKR batting line-up for not throwing it away.

Sunil Narine knows just one way of batting, and he did not budge. He has won matches with that approach, and has gone for nought as well. KKR has been prepared for that from Ball 0. And thus, whenever Narine is dismissed early, they throw in another former opener, Venkatesh Iyer into the mix. ‘Six and gone’ is what the commentators screamed when Pat Cummins lapped up the West Indian icy allrounder on the second ball of the second over.

The true story of holding the crease (and the trophy) begins now. We also must acknowledge the fact that KKR was chasing just 114 runs. Anything beyond 180 and the script could have been totally different. However, we must also notice the number of balls the men from Kolkata took to reach the target. 63. They did not change their approach. By law of averages and the batting display they put in, Kolkata would’ve chased down any target in the region of 180.

Here is the tweet:

Rahmanullah Gurbaz is no pushover with the ball, but he’s no Travis Head either. He did what he was tasked with – wait for the poor ball and play your shots. Kolkata had the luxury. Till he got out, Gurbaz consistently rotated the strike while getting a boundary every over. He ensured the run rate was never a point of concern for his side, even if the other end fell like ninepins.

But it didn’t, did it? On the other hand, Venkatesh Iyer had come in and had started to take centerstage and in style. 26 balls, 4 fours and 3 sixes later, he had ensured the Cup was in the bag.

Bowling

There’s not much to talk about SRH’s bowling – their batting had made their jobs a million times harder. Let’s talk about KKR. There’s a Hindi daily that has a headline (29th May, 2024) – ‘25 crore down the drain – Virat hits Starc for massive six!’ If there’s one left-arm pacer you’d pick to save your life, most of the world will be betting on Mitchell Starc. And he proved that yet again, on a decider evening in Chennai.

This wasn’t the best season for the Australian star – he lost rhythm and was often wayward in terms of his line, but he delivered when it mattered the most. If there’s one player who wasn’t swayed by the pressures of the final, Starc would be our pick. His numbers read 3-0-14-2, a dream figure for any bowler in any showpiece encounter. The fact that Starc had snapped up IPL’s most dangerous Indian batsman and the knockouts’ most in-form batsman worked wonderfully for Shreyas Iyer’s XI.

Here is the tweet:

Supporting actors Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana and Andre Russell did not bowl in a flailing manner, thus, never losing control. Spinners have been KKR’s strength for years, and that did not change. Varine (Varun and Narine) continued the choke on the flow of runs, ensuring an easy chase for their batsmen.

In the end, it was refreshing to see two new teams vie for the coveted prize. It is safe to say that Hyderabad has turned a leaf and will be a force to be reckoned with in the years to come. Well, it is indeed a tale of two football crazy cities, turning on a show for a breath of fresh air with cricket.

Congratulations, Kolkata Knight Riders. You indeed did, fought and won!

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