KKR comprehensively defeated SRH by 8 wickets

Certain amount of caution is required: Gavaskar

Sunrisers were pushed onto the back foot: Gavaskar

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) comprehensively defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 8 wickets with 38 balls to spare to book a place in the final of IPL 2024. Mitchell Starc who was the most expensive player in the history of IPL picked up 3 wickets in the powerplay to provide KKR the initial momentum during the first innings. This included the wicket of the dangerous Australian batsman Travis Head. “There was a partnership of sorts, but to me, the approach of the SRH batters in those first six overs was puzzling. When you’ve lost two wickets and the two who have been scoring runs for you, a certain amount of caution is required. Sure, don’t miss out on scoring opportunities, but don’t look to throw your bat at everything. That’s what we saw. They lost those four wickets, and losing four top batters means you can’t really expect numbers five, six, seven, eight, and nine to get you to 200. So, that is where they may have lost it. But full credit to Kolkata for the way they attacked and took advantage of that pitch as well,” former Indian batsman Suni Gavaskar said in an interaction with Star Sports. 

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Sunil Gavaskar praised KKR for their allround display of talent. KKR have appeared in IPL finals on 3 occasions and have been victorious on 2 occasions. “It was a terrific performance, no question. Such an impressive display with both the bat and the ball. They took four wickets in the power play, and that’s where the Sunrisers were pushed onto the back foot, really on the ropes. They couldn’t recover from that,” Gavaskar added.