SRH vs RR, IPL 2024 Qualifier 2: Shahbaz, Klaasen Rise as Sunrisers Set Royals Packing in Chennai, confirm Final date with KKR

SRH vs RR, IPL 2024 Qualifier 2: Sunrisers Hyderabad confirmed a date with Kolkata Knight Riders in the Final after a stellar victory over Rajasthan Royals on Friday (May 24) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

SRH won the Qualifier 2 by 36 runs to qualify for their third IPL final. The Orange Army had a fantastic outing in Chennai against the Royals, as they march on to the championship clash.

SRH vs RR: As It Happened

Rajasthan Royals won the toss and RR skipper Sanju Samson opted to field. The opening was quite similar to the last match for SRH, as they lost three wickets within powerplay. Abhishek Sharma's innings ended just after an explosive start.

Trent Boult maintained his reputation of scalping batters in the powerplay overs as the left-arm pacer bagged three wickets in a fiery spell of three overs. Despite losing wickets, SRH continued to attack, resulting in 68 for three at the end of six overs.

After building an important partnership of 42 runs with Heinrich Klaasen, Travis Head got dismissed in the 10th over. Rajasthan bowlers continued to keep the pressure on and as a result SRH lost two more wickets.

Klassen remained crucial for the SRH innings and with the impact sub Shahbaz Ahmed stitched a valuable partnership of 43 runs off 25 balls. Avesh Khan and Sandeep Sharma were brilliant as they didn't allow SRH batters to go on a run frenzy. In the last two overs, RR conceded just 12 runs as SRH ended up with 175 for 9 in their full quota of overs.

In the run chase, after a slow start with losing the wicket of Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Yashasvi Jaiswal managed to get a 19-run over against Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the last over of the powerplay. Disaster struck the Royals from the eighth over of the innings as the spinners came to the attack. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sanju Samson had to go back to the pavilion within two successive overs after a partnership of 41 runs off 23 balls.

Due to the lack of the dew factor, the pitch got drier which helped the spinners, and the SRH spin duo, Shahbaz Ahmed and Abhishek Sharma made the best use of the situation, taking five wickets altogether in their eight-over spell. Their meagre bowling continued to push the run rate higher and led to losing temperament and poor shot selection by the RR batters, leading to a loss of 6 wickets against 93 runs after the 14th over.

A brave knock of 56 not out off 35 balls by Dhruv Jurel kept the hope for the Final alive but in the end, it was too much for the Royals as they ended up with 139 for 7 in their 20 overs.

SRH vs RR IPL Qualifier 2 Brief Scores

Sunrisers Hyderabad: 175 for 9 in 20 overs (Heinrich Klaasen 50, Rahul Tripathi 37, Travis Head 34; Avesh Khan 3/27, Trent Boult 3/45)

Rajasthan Royals: for in 20 overs ( Dhruv Jurel 56*, Yashasvi Jaiswal 42; Shahbaz Ahmed 4/23, Abhishek Sharma 2/24)

Result: SRH won by 36 Runs

SRH vs RR Aftermaths

SRH will be in the Final of the IPL 2024 on Sunday (May 26) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. For RR, it is the end of their two-month journey. SRH will be against KKR and it will be a rematch of Qualifier 1.