Tonight (May 26) at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chepauk, Chennai, Kolkata Knight Riders won their third IPL trophy after thrashing Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight wickets in the final. They bowled out SRH for 113 and got the runs in 10.3 overs.

With a three-point lead over others, KKR had been the best side in the league by some distance. In the Qualifier 1, they bowled out SRH for 59 and romped to a win inside 14 overs to qualify for the final.

SRH raised the hopes of their fans with a 36-run win against Rajasthan Royals in Qualifier 2. In the final, however, they caved in against some excellent bowling from KKR, all of whose bowlers rose to the occasion after Pat Cummins opted to bat.

Ball of the season

Mitchell Starc (2-14) began the carnage, with arguably the best ball of the season to take out Abhishek Sharma in the first over. Vaibhav Arora (1-24) had Travis Head caught behind first ball. Starc then took out Rahul Tripathi to reduce SRH to 22-3.

Aiden Markram (20) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (10) added 25 for the fourth wicket, but Harshit Rana (2-24) kept the pressure on. with Reddy’s wicket. He bowled a string of slower balls to size up Reddy before unleashing one at great pace. Reddy, late on the shot, could only edge to Rahmanullah Gurbaz. When Markram holed out off Andre Russell (3-19), SRH slumped to 62-5.

All hopes now rested on Heinrich Klaasen, who was joined by Shahbaz Ahmed, hero of Qualifier 2. Despite Klaasen’s proficiency against spin, Shreyas Iyer kept Sunil Narine (1-16) and Varun Chakravarthy (1-9) on. Uncomfortable against Varun from the onset, Shahbaz tried to sweep and top-edged to fine-leg.

SRH, 71-6 inside 12 overs at this point, were forced to use batter Abdul Samad as the Impact Player. He poked at a ball from Russell with minimal footwork, and Gurbaz completed his third catch. With little option left, Klaasen tried to hit out – but Rana deceived him with a slower ball and hit timber, leaving SRH reeling at 90-8.

First team to be bowled out in final

Cummins himself top-scored with a 19-ball 24 from No.9 to take SRH to the three-figure mark. They eventually became the first team to be bowled out in an IPL final, for 113 – the lowest score in an IPL final. They lasted only 18.3 overs.

Sunil Narine began his response in characteristic fashion, hitting the first ball he faced for six but perishing off the second, but SRH’s joy was short-lived. Gurbaz (39 in 32 balls) did not get going, but he did not need to – for Venkatesh Iyer (52 not out in 26) unleashed a violent attack on SRH.

Venkatesh began the third over with four, six, six off Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and the sixth over with four, four, six, four off T Natarajan. By the time the powerplay was over, the asking rate had come down to three.

Shahbaz did trap Gurbaz leg-before (UltraEdge was not available) but by then, KKR were already past a hundred. Ten balls later, Venkatesh got the winning run – albeit off an unconvincing inside-edge – in the company of captain Shreyas.

Third IPL trophy

This was KKR’s third IPL trophy, after 2012 and 2014. Only Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings (five times each) have won more.