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Those who chase runs at Narendra Modi Stadium have more chances to win. Pat Cummins should have understood that in the 2023 World Cup final, they needed to chase runs similarly. After the second innings’ dew, the ball no longer grips. He should have won the toss and chosen to bat.
Hyderabad won the toss and batted first, with their two power hitters, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, coming in to bat. There were high expectations for them, but KKR bowler Starc took a wicket in the first over. Then Abhishek Sharma, who was in good rhythm with a great power hit, was dismissed by Vaibhav Arora. In the fuller delivery, while hitting short at cover off, Andre Russell caught him. SRH then lost 2 wickets for 13 runs.
Nitish Reddy came in and scored 9 runs in 10 balls but was run out by Starc. Shahbaz took Starc’s wicket on the first ball. Tripathi fought alone with full confidence and scored 55 runs in 35 balls but got run out along with Abdul Samad. There was a lot of hope, but they didn’t play well. Pat Cummins brought in Sanvir Singh as the super sub first, but Narine dismissed Sanvir on the first ball. Cummins then fought alone, scoring 30 off 24 balls. No one was around to help him. SRH could not play until the 20th over and scored only 159 runs, losing 10 wickets in 19.3 overs. Mitchell Starc bowled well for KKR, bowling 4 overs, giving 34 runs, and taking 3 wickets. Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Narine, and Russell took 1 wicket each, while Varun Chakravarthy got 2 wickets.
The target was 160 runs for Kolkata. Gurbaz and Narine came to open for Kolkata. Both started well. Gurbaz was out for 44 runs by Natarajan’s slow cutter. Sunil Narine‘s performance was great. Narine’s wicket was then taken by Cummings. Venkatesh Iyer and Shreyas Iyer played brilliantly together, giving a match-winning performance. Kolkata won the match by standing until the last. Captain Shreyas Iyer scored 51 runs off 24 balls, and Venkatesh Iyer scored 51 runs off 28 balls. The Kolkata team chased 160 runs in 13.4 overs. Hyderabad’s bowling couldn’t do much. Experienced bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar couldn’t give a good start, but Natarajan took 1 wicket for 22 runs in 3 overs, and Pat Cummins bowled 3 overs, taking 1 wicket for 38 runs. The rest couldn’t do much.
Hyderabad started well but couldn’t do anything in the chase. They only chased the target in the second innings against Punjab in the last match of the group. They were missing a bowler against Kolkata. SRH made a wrong choice for the super sub; they shouldn’t have dropped Sanvir Singh. Washington Sundar or Umran Malik would have been better choices. If their opening flops, and Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head are out, it’s all over. If their top order doesn’t perform well, SRH will not be able to set a good target. They need to do well; they still have a chance to play Qualifier 2. They could play against either Royal Challengers Bangalore or Rajasthan Royals. Let’s see who comes next.
Kolkata Knight Riders have played well this season, finishing at number 1 in the points table. In Playoff Qualifier 1, Mitchell Starc was the man of the match. The team has performed well in all formats. Gurbaz has played well as an opener, and the top order and finisher are in good form. Everyone is getting wickets, Starc is performing well, and each bowler in the team has taken 15-18 wickets. They have entered the final. The final will be in Chennai on 26th May. Let’s see who makes it to the final.
