Starc shows the way as KKR blow away Sunrisers to march into IPL final

ESPNcriciinfo: Kolkata Knight Riders 164 for 2 (Shreyas 58*, Venkatesh 51, Natarajan 1-22) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 159 (Tripathi 55, Starc 3-34, Varun 2-26) by eight wickets

Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma are used to going bang, bang and pretty much killing off games in the first six overs at IPL 2024. But in the first qualifier in Ahmedabad, it was Mitchell Starc who went bang, bang, bang in the powerplay to secure Kolkata Knight Riders’ spot in the IPL final on Sunday in Chennai.

After Starc scythed through SRH’s top order in an opening spell of 3-0-22-3, Varun Chakravarthy took over in the middle overs to help dismiss SRH for 159 in 19.3 overs.

Kolkata Knight Riders 164 for 2 (Shreyas 58*, Venkatesh 51, Natarajan 1-22) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 159 (Tripathi 55, Starc 3-34, Varun 2-26) by eight wickets

In reply, Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer made unbeaten half-centuries as KKR ran down the target with more than six overs to spare.

Sunrisers Hyderabad will face the winner of the eliminator between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore, for a shot at a rematch with KKR in the final.