Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad will take on for the second time in less than a week when they play the final of the IPL 2024 at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday.
Here are the player matchups that could turn the fate of the contest:
Sunil Narine vs Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Sunil Narine and Phil Salt in action against Punjab Kings. | Photo Credit: AP
Narine has 482 runs in IPL 2024 at a strike rate of 179.85. Of these, more than 50 per cent runs have come in the PowerPlay, at an almost identical strike rate.
Narine has a preference for spinners too. He strikes at nearly 200 against the tweakers as compared to 177 against pacers.
Sunrisers could potentially use Bhuvneshwar Kumar to exploit this chink. The veteran pacer was slow to start off this season but has fired back to form in the last five games.
Bhuvneshwar has bowled to Narine across 10 innings in the IPL, giving away just 31 runs in 28 deliveries and getting him out twice.
Travis Head vs Mitchell Starc
Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Travis Head cleaned bowled by Kolkata Knight Riders’ Mitchell Starc. | Photo Credit: KKR/Twitter
Travis Head has single-handedly given blazing starts to Sunrisers Hyderabad for a major part of the IPL.
On more than one occasions, SRH has settled contests, or at least swung the momentum in its favour, purely due to the exploits of Head and his opening partner Abhishek Sharma.
Head, however, has been susceptible to left-arm seamers. He strikes at over 192 against left-arm quicks but has been susceptible too, falling four times in 11 innings in the IPL.
Mitchell Starc particularly exploited his weakness to the inswinging delivery as he castled him up on just the second ball of the first qualifier. KKR will have the advantage once more if Starc can emulate the dismissal from the match.
Heinrich Klaasen vs Varun Chakaravarthy
Heinrich Klaasen plays a shot against Punjab Kings. | Photo Credit: PTI
Varun Chakaravarthy has been the one half of the two-pronged KKR spin attack along with Sunil Narine that has choked the run supply for teams in IPL 2024.
At 20 wickets from 14 innings, Varun is among the leading wicket-takers this season. But against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Varun will have a headache in dealing with the brute force of Heinrich Klaasen.
Klaasen has 31 runs off 15 balls against Chakaravarthy and has gotten out just once.
Varun has bowled 40 overs through the middle-stage (overs 7-16) of an innings this season, and Sunrisers could bank on Klaasen to attack through the phase.
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