The State of Play
After more than two months of action and 73 matches, the IPL 2024 comes down to this: Kolkata Knight Riders will face Sunrisers Hyderabad in the final at Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday.
While both sides have been regulars in the play-offs since the first edition of the Indian Premier League in 2008, the last time either triumphed was when SRH took the title in 2016, two years after KKR tasted glory for the second time in three seasons.
Those are the only occasions on which these teams have won the final, and their 2024 showdown is also a meeting between the top two, KKR finishing on 20 points, three ahead of SRH.
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KKR can take immense confidence from their eight-wicket win over SRH in Qualifier 1, but SRH enter with momentum after convincingly taking their shot at redemption with a 36-run win over Rajasthan Royals on Friday to reach the final at the second attempt.
Daniel Vettori’s team also have three of the 11 players to have scored more than 450 runs in the IPL 2024, led by Travis Head on 567, Abhishek Sharma on 482 – with by far the highest strike rate, of 207.75 – and Heinrich Klaasen, on 463.
Spinner Varun Chakaravarthy will be aiming to sign off in destructive style for KKR, requiring four more wickets on top of the 20 he has taken to match current leader Harshal Patel, of Punjab Kings.
Two forces. One goal. Game on! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/GSKrl6qD0N
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) May 25, 2024
SRH’s Thangarasu Natarajan is one behind Chakaravarthy, with captain Pat Cummins and KKR’s Harshit Rana both on 17 wickets.
KKR all-rounder Sunil Narine is the 10th-highest scorer in the IPL with 482 and has taken 16 wickets, while Mitchell Starc took three wickets in four overs for 34 runs against SRH last time out.
Expected line-ups
Kolkata Knight Riders: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakravarthy
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Reddy, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Abdul Samad, Pat Cummins (c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, T Natarajan
Captain Pat’s 👀 are on the 🏆#PlayWithFire #KKRvSRH pic.twitter.com/qFPWFSBwtx
— SunRisers Hyderabad (@SunRisers) May 25, 2024
How to watch
Sky have the rights to show the IPL to UK viewers in 2024 and will broadcast every game live. Sunday’s match will be shown on Sky Sports Action from 2.50pm BST.
In India, the games can be streamed on the Jio Cinema app and website. They are also available across the Star Sports Network.
Prediction
As the standout team in the IPL 2024, it would be a surprise – if not a shock – if KKR failed to complete a near-perfect campaign by winning the final.
The presence in the background of their record scorer, Gautam Gambhir, could be a decisive factor. The former India international led Kolkata to their two previous titles as captain and was restored as a mentor to the team at the start of this season.
KKR are on a roll of five consecutive wins, contrasting a more patchy run of four victories in eight matches for their opponents.
SRH did, however, push KKR hard in their regular-season encounter, restricting the dominant team in the table to a four-run win on March 23.
