Kolkata Knight Riders have entered the finals of IPL 2024. They defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by 8 wickets in the first qualifier match today (May 21).

In this Qualifier-One match, Hyderabad won the toss and batted first, setting a target of 160 runs. In reply, KKR won the match by losing 2 wickets in 13.4 overs. Also entered the finals.

KKR put up small partnerships in their chase of 160 and finally, Venkatesh Iyer and Shreyas Iyer's 97-run partnership won the qualifier match and entered the finals of IPL 2024.

Chasing 160, a 44-run opening partnership between Gurbaz and Sunil Narine got Kolkata off to a good start and Venkatesh Iyer and Shreyas Iyer did the rest.

Chasing the target of 160 runs, Sunil Narine and Rahmanullah Gurbaz gave KKR a strong start. Meanwhile, in the fourth over, Gurbaz was dismissed for 23 runs off 14 balls. On the strength of this powerful start, Kolkata Knight Riders scored 63 runs for the loss of 1 wicket in the Powerplay overs.

Even after the end of the powerplay, KKR's run rate did not drop. At the end of 10 overs, Kolkata were 107 for 2 and the team needed 53 runs from 60 balls to win.

Meanwhile, Venkatesh Iyer completed his half-century in 28 balls, while captain Shreyas Iyer completed his half-century in 23 balls. An unbeaten partnership of 97 runs between Venkatesh Iyer and Shreyas sealed the victory for Kolkata Knight Riders by 8 wickets.

Hyderabad innings

Earlier, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) bowled out Sunrisers Hyderabad for 159 runs in 19.3 overs thanks to a superb performance by pacer Mitchell Starc.

After winning the toss and batting first, the Hyderabad team got off to a poor start. The team had lost 4 wickets for just 39 runs. After this, Rahul Tripathi scored 55 runs off 35 balls and Heinrich Klaasen scored 32 runs off 21 balls.

Hyderabad were 9 for 126, then Pat Cummins finally took 30 off 24 balls to take the score past 150.

Before that, Tripathi and Klassen shared a partnership of 62 runs in 37 balls for the fifth wicket. Finally Pat Cummins scored 30 runs. Apart from this, not a single batsman could reach the figure of 20. While fast bowler Mitchell Starc took the most 3 wickets for KKR team. Varun Chakraborty took 2 wickets. Vaibhav Arora, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell and Harshit Rana got 1 wicket each.