Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) will lock horns in the first qualifier of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). Given the format of the cash-rich league, the two teams locked horns only once earlier this season a whopping 68 matches ago starting their respective campaigns of IPL 2024. Almost two months since then, they finished at the top two positions in the points table and will face in the first playoff fixture.
It was only the 3rd match of the season and played at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Interestingly, Travis Head didn't make it to the playing XI of SRH in their campaign opener. After losing the toss, KKR recovered from being 51/4 to post a mammoth total of 208 runs in their 20 overs. Opening the innings, Phil Salt scored 54 runs while Andre Russell provided the real impetus to the innings at the back end smashing an unbeaten 64 off 25 balls with three fours and seven sixes.
Chasing 209, Mayank Agarwal and Abhishek Sharma got the team off to a splendid start scoring 60 runs in 5.3 overs. But they lost steam in non-powerplay overs with the score reading 111/4 in the 13th over. This is when Heinrich Klaasen turned the game on its head hitting sixes at will, as many as eight, scoring 63 runs off 29 balls. But his efforts went in vain as KKR won the last-ball thriller by just four runs. At one stage, SRH seemed to have sealed the deal but Harshit Rana kept his cool to dismiss Klaasen when five runs were needed off two balls.
A lot of water has flown since then with both teams playing some brilliant cricket and finishing at top two places. KKR ended the league stage at the top of the table with nine wins in 14 matches while SRH won eight matches in their 14 outings to finish at second place. SRH's last win over Punjab Kings propelled them to the second place and Rajasthan Royals' last game getting washed out also helped them in the end.
