Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) thrashed Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight wickets to lift the 2024 TATA Indian Premier League title in Chennai on Sunday.
Bowling first, the Kolkata-based franchise restricted the feared batting lineup of Sunrisers to a meager 113 runs and chased down the target in 10.3 overs, losing two wickets to lift its third IPL title.
KKR had earlier lifted the IPL title in 2012 and 2014.
Sunrisers lost their first wicket in the very first over as Abhishek Sharma was bowled by Mitchell Starc with only one run on the board. Travis Head was out for a duck in the last ball of the next over. Rahul Tripathi survived 13 balls. Aiden Markram and Nitish Rana tried to build a partnership, but KKR bowlers were too good for them. Pat Cummins top-scored for Sunrisers with a 19-ball 24, while Markram scored 20, Heinrich Klaasen added 16, and Nitish Rana contributed 13. The other Sunrisers batters failed to reach double digits.
All KKR bowlers had wickets to their names. Andre Russell took three, Mitchell Starc and Harshit Rana got two each, and Vaibhav Arora, Sunil Narine, and Varun Chakravarthy claimed a wicket each.
Chasing 114 to lift the trophy, King Riders lost their star batter Sunil Narine in the second over of the game. But Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Venkatesh Iyer scored freely to prevent a Sunrisers comeback in the game. Gurbaz scored 39 off 32 balls, while Iyer was not out at 52 from 46 balls.
Pat Cummins and Shahbaz Ahmed took a wicket each for Sunrisers.
Sunil Narine was adjudged Player of the Series for his all-round performance. The 34-year-old from Trinidad and Tobago scored an impressive 488 runs and took 17 wickets. Nitish Kumar Reddy of Sunrisers was adjudged Emerging Player of the Season.
Likewise, Virat Kohli of Royal Challengers Bangalore won the Orange Cap, which is given to the highest run-getter, while Harshal Patel of Royal Challengers Bangalore clinched the Purple Cap for taking the highest number of wickets.
