Kolkata Knight Riders regained the Indian Premier League (IPL) championship title after a decade with a thumping eight-wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad in the final of the IPL 2024 at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday. (As It Happened)
There was no single hero in KKR's team as it was a consistent performance of the players which took the team forward and eventually helped them win the trophy after a 10-year wait.
It was in the first edition of the IPL, that a team won the title with just three defeats during their campaign. Rajasthan Royals, led by spin wizard Shane Warne endured just three defeats in their campaign and clinched the title, beating Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the final.
After 17 years, KKR have repeated that feat, making their IPL 2024 campaign the joint-most successful campaign by any IPL team ever. They suffered three defeats during the league stage and still topped the points table with nine wins in 14 matches. Their two matches were washed out in the rain.
The Shreyas Iyer-led KKR started their campaign with a four-run win over SRH in Eden Gardens. Then they beat RCB in the next match by seven wickets and went on to register a thumping 106-run victory over Delhi Capitals.
CSK was the first team to defeat KKR in the IPL 2024 when they were restricted to 137/9 and Ruturaj Gaikwad's men chased down the target easily. Then they bounced back with an eight-wicket win over LSG at their home venue. But Rajasthan Royals won the next match by 2 wickets to hand them their second defeat of the season.
In the next match, they beat RCB by one run but failed to defend a mammoth 262-run target from Punjab Kings at the Eden Gardens. This was their third and last defeat of the season. After that, they kept on winning the matches in the league stage and finished at the top of the table. KKR was also the first team to qualify for the playoffs and enter the final.
KKR and SRH both had a balanced side and they were the finalists. SRH never won a single time against KKR, though the two teams met thrice in IPL 2024. It was because of their consistency with the bat and ball as well.
Players were given their roles and the coach and mentor were always there when the captain needed them. They used Manish Pandey as an impact player in only one match and he helped them win that game. They never played him again in any match but always kept him as an option in the impact substitute to use him if any unforeseeable condition arose.
Sunil Narine, who made 488 runs with the bat in 14 innings and took 17 wickets was the most valuable player of the season. His all-round ability helped KKR play an extra batter which eventually helped them play with a much better strike rate.
The Knight Riders had Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Venkatesh Iyer, Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana and Anukul Roy -- invariably representing the core of Indian talent in the camp -- and were given the freedom to express themselves. Each one of them (even in the very limited opportunities) proved their worth.
Overseas players Phil Salt, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Andre Russell were also superb whenever they were present on the field.
Mitchell Starc was acquired for INR 24.75 crores in the auction and he justified the price tag with his unplayable spells in the playoffs. All players stood right on the moment when they were needed and the overall team performance led their team to another IPL title after 10 years of wait.
