KKR vs SRH: Four Key Duels to Watch Out For in Kolkata vs Hyderabad in IPL 2024 Final

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The IPL 2024 has come to its eleventh hour and at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai two former champions, Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad will lock horns on Sunday (May 26) evening.

Both of them met 27 times in the past and KKR have a heavy majority over their rivals with 18 wins as SRH has managed to get victorious on nine occasions only.

Their last meeting was in Qualifier 1, just five days ago, where SRH had to eat a humble pie as KKR had complete dominance over them. This season in both face-offs they had, KKR remained victorious.

KKR vs SRH IPL 2024: Performances On the Way to Final

The Kolkata side has lost only three matches in this campaign and in two matches they lost points due to washouts. This extraordinary display got them to the top spot of the points table. Explosive starting in the powerplay overs by two KKR openers, Sunil Narine and Phil Salt helped the Knights to maintain a flexible batting order throughout the season.

Traditionally Kolkata have always maintained a strong bowling unit and this year was also not an exception. Spinner-duo, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy have been phenomenal all over the season along with the uncapped pacer Harshit Rana. Mitchell Starc also picked up his form in recent matches which also bolstered the Knight's bowling for the Final.

SRH on the other hand, have redefined the playing style of the game by unforeseen batting prowess in successive matches. They have made the highest-ever innings total in IPL, just to break that and set a new one within a few weeks.

Just like KKR, SRH's opening partnership by Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma played a great role in this extraordinary batting display. Besides this duo, Hyderabad's batting line-up is full of power hitters like Heinrich Klaasen, Aiden Markram, Rahul Tripathi and Nitish Reddy. The pacer-heavy bowling unit of SRH also has decent runs throughout the season.

T. Natarajan, Pat Cummins and Bhuvneshwar Kumar remain the main pacers for them, but in the spin department, they failed to find a permanent solution. In the last match, part-time spinners like Abhishek Sharma and Shahbaz Ahmed played a decisive role in helping the Orange Brigade to reach the final.

KKR vs SRH IPL 2024 Final: Four Key Duels in Final 2024

Mitchell Starc vs Travis Head: In the last match, the Knights's left-arm pacer was the clear winner in the battle with his compatriot Travis Head, as the former had managed to scalp him a duck. Head had a great season so far and is the highest scorer for SRH with 567 runs.

On the other hand, Starc remains very expensive all over the season but recently got his form back. An early wicket of Head would be a great relief for the Knights as his opening partnership with Abhishek Sharma has been the main factor behind SRH's explosive batting displays.

Heinrich Klaasen vs Varun Chakravarthy: A duel between Klassen's explosive batting and Chakravarthy's mystery spin could be a great treat to watch in the middle overs.

Knights' success is heavily dependent on their bowlers' performances in this phase of the innings where they choke down their opponents' run rate with the meagre bowling of Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine.

In Qualifier 1, Klassen was dismissed by the leg-spinner. This will be a perfect opportunity for the Protean to get revenge and lead his team to a bigger innings total.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz vs Pat Cummins: The Afghan wicketkeeper-batter of KKR has played a single match so far. He is an aggressive batter and is the perfect replacement for Philip Salt, who has been brilliant in the opening partnerships along with Sunil Narine.

A quick and fiery knock against the SRH skipper in the powerplay could be very crucial, as it can force Cummins to bring spinners like Shahbaz Ahmed to attack earlier, as Natarajan and Unadkat will be reserved for the deathovers.

This alteration might help the Knights power-hitters like Andre Russel and Ramandeep Singh to utilise the opportunity to put up a big score.

Shreyas Iyer vs Shahbaz Ahmed: The KKR skipper is known for his ability against the spinners, but if at Chepauk weather remains similar to that of the last match, i.e; no dew and dry pitch, it will become a heaven for the spinners.

If KKR happened to bat second and this would be the situation, it would be a test for Iyer to maintain his reputation. After destroying RR-batting almost single-handedly just a day ago, Ahmed's confidence will be high. A quick wicket of Iyer could be detrimental for Kolkata in the final.

Though past records are favourable to the Knights, SRH with their redefined approach could upset the two-time champions. From each of their last matches, it is evident that they both have been decent in all the departments.

Hence, given the bowler-friendly nature of the pitch, a low-scoring but highly competitive match can be expected in the final showdown of IPL 2024.