Sunrisers Hyderabad are completely on the defensive in the ongoing IPL 2024 final against Kolkata Knight Riders after suffering an unexplained collapse.
The game started on a good note for SRH as their captain Pat Cummins won the toss and opted to bat first at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Earlier this week, SRH defeated Rajasthan Royals in the second qualifier at the same venue while batting first and decided to bat first again.
However, the decision turned into a nightmare as soon as KKR players ruined SRH’s top order. Mitchell Starc castled Abhishek Sharma with a beauty in the first over to set the tone.
From that position, SRH continued to lose wickets at regular intervals and found themselves reeling at 62 for 5 in the 11th over. Shahbaz Ahmed and Abdul Samad also couldn’t do much with the bat as KKR reduced the Hyderabad-based team to 77 for 7.
Their only hope to finish the innings strongly was Heinrich Klaasen. The hard-hitting batsman had scored a fifty at the same venue in the previous match and SRH expected the same from him in the ongoing game as well.
However, Klaasen failed to propel his team to a good total as he was bowled cleanly by Harshit Rana. In the first ball of the 15th over, the right-arm pacer bowled one well outside off stump.
It was a slower ball and Klaasen arrived a little early in his attack. In the end he ended up dragging it over the stumps. The wicketkeeper batsman departed after scoring 16 runs off 17 balls.
As soon as Klaasen was fired, cameras panned to the stands, where SRH co-owner Kavya Maran looked absolutely dejected.
Watch Harshit Rana fire Heinrich Klaasen:
pic.twitter.com/21302qdw7y
– Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka (@Hanji_CricDekho) May 26, 2024
Talking about the game, SRH were 113 for 9 in the 18th over at the time of writing this report.
KKR have already defeated SRH twice this season and are in a strong position for another win. SRH, on the other hand, need something miraculous to turn things around after their disastrous show with the bat.