Kolkata Knight Riders earned their first Indian Premier League trophy in a decade, stalling this season’s batting dynamo Sunrisers Hyderabad before cruising to an eight-wicket win in the final.
Sunrisers had three of the four greatest totals not only in this year’s competition but in all IPLs, scoring a tournament-record 287, 277, and 266 between March and April.
However, they were bowled for 113 in 18.3 overs in Chennai, the lowest score in any IPL final, before Kolkata cruised to their mark in just 10.3 overs, adding to their 2012 and 2014 victories, with Ventakesh Iyer (52no off 26 balls) scoring the winning run.
Venkatesh and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (39 off 32) smoked 91 off 45 balls for Kolkata’s second wicket, with Venkatesh hitting four boundaries in a row off Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the third over and four more off T Natarajan in the sixth, as KKR finished on 72-1.Sunrisers’ difficulties began with Australia’s Mitchell Starc bowling Abhishek Sharma with a brilliant delivery on the fifth ball of the match, followed by Starc’s countryman Travis Head being dismissed for a golden duck in the second as his side stumbled after deciding to bat.
The Sunrisers stumbled to 21-3 inside five overs and continued to wobble after that, with the 2016 champions grateful for Pat Cummins’ 24 from No. 9 to get them into three digits.
Kolkata had also scored large in the IPL this season, with a top of 272-7 against Delhi Capitals, but their bowlers’ outstanding performance against the Sunrisers ensured they were only chasing a moderate target. West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell took 3-19, with fellow seamers Starc and Vaibhav Arora taking two each, backed up by economical bowling from spinners including Sunil Narine (1-16).
Narine perished in the second over of the chase, one ball after hitting Cummins for six, but the Sunrisers were unable to mount a rousing return as Gurbaz and Venkatesh ripped through the bowling.
