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Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins admitted that they failed to get enough runs on the board and would have stayed in the final if they reached 160 against Kolkata Knight Riders at Chepauk.
On a night when clouds hovered over the MA Chidambaram Stadium, the red soil surface provided the ideal platform for the KKR quicks to express themselves. Record IPL signing, it was Starc who set the tone of a one-sided final. He produced a peach of a delivery in the first over, angling in towards Abhishek Sharma. The left-handed batter opened up like a can allowing the ball to go past his defence and clip the off stump. "They bowled fantastically. Old mate Starcy turned up again! Not enough tonight, totally outplayed. You hope you get some boundaries away but they bowled fantastically well," Cummins said in the post-match presentation. When both these teams competed in Qualifier 1, Sunrisers found themselves in a similar situation just like they did in the final. Starc and Vaibhav Arora bowling in tandem caused plenty of trouble to the free-scoring Hyderabad batters. Once again it was the quick duo that struck hard early in the powerplay, putting SRH in a turmoil that prevented them from reaching 160, a score which would have given a chance to Hyderabad. "Didn't give us anything, Similar to how they bowled in Ahmedabad. It was a tricky wicket. If we got 160, we felt we would have been in the game," Cummins added. Despite falling short in the IPL final, it was a season to remember for the Sunrisers. They caught the eye of the spectators with their free-scoring form. Carrying some power-hitting batters in their arsenal, SRH broke the record for highest score in the IPL twice in a single season. "So many (positives), the style with which the guys played especially with the bat. Lot of skills to get to 250 three times. I loved how brave the guys were. It was a lot of fun, a great season," Cumming concluded. KKR clinched the IPL 2024 title with a dominating all-round performance against SRH in the final at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Their third title celebrations began at the same ground Chepauk where they lifted thier maiden title in 2012 under the leadership of Gautam Gambhir. They scripted an encore to lift their third trophy. The KKR bowlers left the Sunrisers dumbstruck to restrict the free-scoring SRH batting line-up to 113. In reply, KKR chased down in only 10.3 overs with eight wickets in hand. (ANI)
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