Kolkata Knight Riders became the first team to enter the final of IPL 2024.

                               

Kolkata Knight Riders have entered the finals of the Indian Premier League (IPL) by registering a comfortable victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad. In the first qualifier on Tuesday against Hyderabad with 38 balls to spare, Kolkata came close to the third title.

Kolkata reached the target of 160 runs given by Hyderabad by losing only 2 wickets in 13.4 overs. Captain Shreyas Iyer hit 5 fours and 4 sixes in 24 balls and played the highest unbeaten innings of 58 runs in Kolkata's victory. Similarly, Venkatesh Iyer remained unbeaten on 51 runs by hitting 5 fours and 4 sixes off 28 balls. Openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz scored 23 runs and Sunil Narine scored 21 runs. 

Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins and Natarajan took 1 wicket each.

Before that, Hyderabad, who won the toss and batted, were bundled out for 159 runs in 19.3 overs. Rahul Tripathi scored 55 runs off 35 balls for Hyderabad. Heinrich Klaasen scored 32 runs off 21 balls while Cummins scored 30 runs off 24 balls.

Mitchell Starc took 3 wickets, Varun Chakraborty took 2 wickets for Kolkata. Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell took 1 wicket each.

Mitchell Starc became Player of the Match(POTM) due to his outstanding bowling performance as he took 3 wickets with conceding of 34 runs in 4 overs.

Kolkata will play for the title on Sunday. Hyderabad will get a second chance to reach the final. The occasion will be against the winner of the eliminator match between the third and fourth placed Rajasthan and Bengaluru. The eliminator match will be held on Wednesday. The second qualifier will be held in Chennai on Friday.