Kolkata Knight Riders vs Sunrisers Hyderabad IPL 2024 Final

Two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders will lock horns with Sunrisers Hyderabad at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday, May 26. The Sunrisers got a second chance to make it to the IPL 2024 final by virtue of finishing as the top two teams on the IPL 2024 points table. SRH marched into the IPL 2024 final after winning the Qualifier 2 match against Rajasthan Royals by 36 runs. KKR qualified for the final of the IPL 2024 season by crushing SRH by eight wickets in a thrilling Qualifier 1 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Tuesday, May 21. KKR dominated the game from the first ball. The Men in Purple and Gold successfully chased down a target of 160 runs with over six overs to spare after restricting SRH to a modest 159 at the Narendra Modi Stadium. This thrilling win has set the stage for KKR in the summit clash in Chennai on Sunday, May 26, where Shreyas Iyer and his team will battle for the IPL title.

"There's nothing more satisfying than hearing a big crowd go silent," said Pat Cummins on November 18, 2023. The next day, he took Virat Kohli's wicket, making the stadium with 100,000 people feel like a lockdown scenario.

Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma are used to going bang, bang, and almost killing off games in the first six overs at IPL 2024. But the last time these two teams met in Qualifier 1 in Ahmedabad, it was Mitchell Starc who went all guns blazing in the powerplay to secure the Knight Riders a spot in the IPL final on Sunday in Chennai. After Starc tore through SRH's top order in his opening spell of 3 overs, taking 3 wickets for 22 runs, Varun Chakravarthy took charge in the middle overs and contributed to dismissing SRH for 159 in 19.3 overs. In response, Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer both scored unbeaten half-centuries as KKR chased down the target with more than six overs to spare. However, SRH made full use of their second-chance opportunity courtesy of their top-two finish.

"We have earned the right to have one of those days and still win tournaments," said Pat Cummins on May 21, 2024. Sunrisers Hyderabad marched into the IPL 2024 final, and they did it with their spin bowling.

The Orange Army has managed to qualify for the final by beating the Rajasthan Royals by 36 runs. SRH lost the toss and were asked to bowl when conditions were supposed to be dewy, but there was very little dew, and their spinners feasted on this pitch that slowed down as the evening progressed. While Abhishek and Shahbaz impressed with the ball, the momentum shift happened thanks to an aggressive cameo from Tripathi and Klaasen's 34-ball half-century. Although SRH faced some challenges during their batting innings, they managed to avoid a collapse, unlike the Royals. The SRH part-timers bowled 9 overs, conceding only 57 runs and taking five wickets. The pitch got slower as the game progressed, and strokemaking became difficult. Pat Cummins was brilliant as a captain, who realised that spin was the way to go and threw the ball to his spin twins. Also, no dew played a massive role as the ball gripped and turned. Only Dhruv Jurel continued to fight and ended up with a solid innings. Ultimately, it was an easy win for SRH, setting up a rematch of Qualifier 1 on Sunday, May 26 for the final.

KKR vs SRH IPL 2024 Final: Chennai Weather and Pitch Report

Looks like Pat Cummins is not leaving anything to be won as captain. ICC World Test Championship, the 2023 ODI Cricket World Cup and now the IPL 2024 final. It is a chance to counter the conditions against the tournament favourites and end as the winner again. It's a rematch of Qualifier 1 on Sunday. It will be a fascinating match, as the Chepauk curator revealed that the IPL 2024 final will be played on a Mumbai-type red-soil wicket, which only means one thing - runs, runs and lots of runs. According to weather reports, the temperature in Chennai on Sunday will be 36°C during the day and 29°C at night. The sky will be cloudy throughout the day and night. The MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai has produced varying pitches this season. Some games have seen slow and low Chepauk surfaces, while others have resulted in high-scoring encounters.

Predicted Kolkata Knight Riders Playing XI

Kolkata Knight Riders will likely play the same team that won the Qualifier 1 match against Sunrisers Hyderabad. It will be interesting to see how they use their spinners in Chennai, which can be effective against the Sunrisers. Rahmanullah Gurbaz will continue to open the batting with Sunil Narine.

KKR Playing 11

Rahmanullah Gurbaz (WK), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (C), Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy, Vaibhav Arora

Impact Player: Nitish Rana

Shreyas Iyer (C), Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (WK), Phil Salt, Sunil Narine, Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, KS Bharat, Chetan Sakariya, Mitchell Starc, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ramandeep Singh, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Allah Ghazanfar, Dushmantha Chameera, Sakib Hussain.

Predicted Sunrisers Hyderabad Playing XI

The Orange Army has their full squad available, and their batters are in formidable form. The opening pair of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma will need to play their attacking brand of cricket once again, while Heinrich Klaasen and Nitish Reddy are also expected to play a crucial role. However, SRH will likely play the same team that won the Qualifier 2 match against Rajasthan Royals.

SRH Playing 11

Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nitish Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen (WK), Abdul Samad, Pat Cummins (C), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, T Natarajan

Impact Player: Shahbaz Ahmed

Pat Cummins (C), Abdul Samad, Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram, Marco Jansen, Rahul Tripathi, Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Sanvir Singh, Heinrich Klaasen (WK), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Agarwal, T. Natarajan, Anmolpreet Singh, Mayank Markande, Upendra Singh Yadav, Umran Malik, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Shahbaz Ahmed, Travis Head, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth, Jaydev Unadkat, Akash Singh, Jhathavedh Subramanyan.