Shreyas Iyer tagged Kolkata Knight Riders’ win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL 2024 final “comprehensive”, lauding his team for playing “like invincibles throughout the season”.
“This is what we demanded from the team and every individual, they stood up on the right occasion,” Shreyas said, after KKR secured a third IPL title, their first since 2014. “It is hard to express how we are feeling right now. The wait was so long. We played like invincibles throughout the season. There is so much to cherish right now.”
KKR enjoyed one of the most dominant IPL campaigns ever, equalling Shane Warne’s Rajasthan Royals from 2008 for the fewest loses across a season (three). Having topped the league phase table, they beat SRH in Qualifier 1 by eight wickets with 38 balls to spare and amped it up a notch in the final with another eight-wicket rout, this time with 57 balls remaining.
It is pleasing and the performance has been flawless throughout. I am running out of words right now,” Shreyas said of KKR’s season. “We have been tremendous right from game one, and when we stepped [out] all we demanded from ourselves was to back each other no matter the situation. The game could have gone either way. They have been playing phenomenal cricket, SRH, throughout the season.
“Today, we were lucky enough to bowl first and, at the same time, every situation went in our favour. Thanks to SRH [for] the way they have played throughout the season. They have been simply phenomenal.”
It was one-way traffic from the time Mitchell Starc snared Abhishek Sharma with arguably the ball of the tournament. It pitched on middle and leg and zipped sharply past Abhishek’s defences like a legcutter to disturb his off pole. That wicket started a slide; Vaibhav Arora took out Travis Head for a first-ball duck with a peach of an outswinger before Starc struck for a second time dismissing Rahul Tripathi for 9 as SRH slipped to 21 for 3 inside five overs. Shreyas was all praise for Starc.
“The performance has been flawless throughout. I am running out of words right now. We have been tremendous right from game one.”
KKR captain Shreyas Iyer
“That [big games] is when all the big players stand up,” he said. “It was a high-pressure game. He has been so good off the field. He has never shown any sort of complacency in his work ethic. Every time we used to go for the plunge pool, he used to be there… Something for everyone to learn.”
Shreyas was also effusive in praise of Andre Russell, who picked 3 for 19 off 2.3 overs to finish with 19 wickets for the season, his best tally with the ball at any IPL. “He has got that magic wand, which he is hiding somewhere on the field,” Shreyas said. “He is hoping to come and bowl and deliver for the team. He is waiting for me to call him all the time.
“Russell has been lucky for us. Almost in a majority of the games, whenever he has bowled, he has picked up the wickets and he has given us the breakthrough.”
‘There have been plenty of jokes about the money’ – Starc
Mitchell Starc reckons being “more experienced and older” since the previous time he played in the IPL (2015) helped him deal with the pressure of his huge price tag. Starc became the most expensive player in the history of the IPL, going for INR 24.75 crore (USD 2,982,000 approx.) at this season’s auction. He had had a tough start to the campaign, though, going for 100 runs across his first two games, but was Player of the Match in both KKR’s playoffs – the first time a player has done this at the IPL.