Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) take on Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) as Pat Cummins won the toss and elected to bat first in the IPL 2024 final at the MA Chidambaram stadium on May 26. The last time both the teams locked horns with each other, KKR thrashed SRH by eight wickets. Talking about the playing XIs of both the sides, Shahbaz Ahmed came in Hyderabad's final XI in place of Abdul Samad. On the other hand, KKR didn't make any change in their playing XI for the title clash.
What do the captains say?
After winning the toss, SRH skipper Cummins, said
"Looks like a good wicket, never good at reading wickets. But this looks fine. There was no dew the other night, doesn't seem there will be today, but who knows. We are playing a particular style, won't work every time but when it does, it will be damaging. Good to be back here. It is a different soil, but you are asking the wrong bloke. Shahbaz comes in for Samad".
Meanwhile, KKR captain Shreyas Iyer, after the toss, said
“We would have bowled first. This is a completely different soil [than the Eliminator]. We wanted to back that. We need to stick to the [strengths, and need to execute our plans. We have been backing each other. Whenever we have been put under pressure, we have worked out well. There has been jitteriness right from the start [of the day]. This is a big game. Lots of individuals who are playing their first final. There is nervousness. Hopefully we can win this one. We are going with the same team”
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Sunrisers Hyderabad's Playing XI
Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nitish Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen(wk), Shahbaz Ahmed, Pat Cummins(c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, T Natarajan
Sunrisers Hyderabad Impact Subs: Umran Malik, Glenn Phillips, Mayank Markande, Abdul Samad, Washington Sundar
Kolkata Knight Riders' Playing XI
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy
Kolkata Knight Riders Impact Subs: Anukul Roy, Manish Pandey, Nitish Rana, KS Bharat, Sherfaine Rutherford
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KKR vs SRH's Head-to-Head record
The upcoming IPL final adds another chapter to the storied rivalry between KKR and SRH. Historically, KKR holds the edge, winning 18 out of their 27 meetings in the IPL, compared to SRH's 9 victories. This season has been no different. KKR dominated their opening encounter against SRH at Eden Gardens with a convincing four-wicket win. They continued their dominance by defeating the Orange Army by eight wickets in Qualifier 1 at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
Pitch Report
“It's a red soil pitch, 63m and 70m square boundaries, the straight boundary is at 77m. Red clay tends to have a lot of bounce, this is a well prepared pitch and we should have a high scoring game. The scores could range anywhere around 175-190. This is the third final at this venue and there have been high scores in both the previous games. Not a lot of spin, but significant bounce. Unconventional shots, horizontal bat shots is what the batters will look to do against spin. The groundsmen have assured that there'll be no dew tonight as well,” Ian Bishop and Matthew Hayden analysed the pitch.
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