Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) clinched the IPL title for the third time, first in 10 years as they beat Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the final by 8 wickets in Chennai on Sunday, May 26. KKR's rather dominant run in the 2024 edition of the IPL ended with glory as the Shreyas Iyer-led side gave its fans much-needed joy after a decade-long drought for the title. Iyer, who had previously led the Delhi Capitals to their first final in 2020, brought the football flavour to the celebrations as he recreated Lionel Messi's iconic FIFA World Cup celebration.
As soon as Iyer received the trophy from BCCI president Roger Binny and secretary Jay Shah, he started walking slowly towards his teammates signalling to wait for the trophy. Soon the KKR players got the indication and went a bit far from Iyer as the skipper was approaching for him to cover a bit of distance is walk done rather well before he lifted the trophy alongside Sunil Narine, Nitish Rana, Andre Russell and Harshit Rana at the forefront.
The fans immediately made the connection as Messi is famous for his slow walk with the trophy for his players to wait with bated breath to celebrate.
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It has been quite a turnaround for Shreyas Iyer in a span of three months after being dropped from the Test team. Iyer had recurring issues with his back but he lost his central contract and then appeared in the Ranji Trophy knockouts helping Mumbai get to their 42nd title before coming to the IPL and eventually lifting the title there as well. Knight Riders last lost a game back on April 26, exactly a month ago and since then they won six games out of eight played with two being washed out due to rain.
From coach Chandrakant Pandit, mentor Gautam Gambhir and assistant coach Abhishek Nayar to the six-pronged bowling attack, it was a collective effort from the Men in Purple to get their hands on the trophy for the third time.
