IPL 2025 | SRH vs KKR: No context, only pride at stake

New Delhi: Kolkata Knight Riders will have little motivation left when they take on another ousted outfit Sunrisers Hyderabad in an inconsequential IPL game here on Sunday.

Call it irony, when KKR and SRH played their last match of the 2024 IPL, it was the grand finale where Shreyas Iyer's team had trumped Pat Cummins' men in a one-sided match.

On Sunday however, both sides will only have bragging rights there for the taking with at best a sixth place finish in the offing.

SRH will start as favourites, having thrashed a fancied RCB by 42 runs on Friday night and will be more than game-ready unlike KKR, which last took the field against CSK on May 7 at the Eden Gardens.

Pat Cummins would like to finish this season on a winning note and their formidable batting line-up comprising Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Aniket Verma would like to feast on a batting paradise at the Kotla.

Ajinkya Rahane's men were supposed to play RCB on May 17, the first match post resumption but Bengaluru weather not only played spoilsport, it also ended their slim play-off hopes.

With the four play-off spots already decided, the problem with a game like this is that it is more of a formality and tick in the box for broadcasters.

But that won't stop the two teams from trying to win one last time and finishing on a happy note before the mandarins of both teams go back to the drawing board and take stock of what all went wrong during the season.

For KKR, local curator Sujan Mukherjee's (a small time Bengal cricketer of 1970's) obstinacy in dishing out a belter certainly didn't help their cause.

They lost crucial home games and their strike bowler Varun Chakravarthy, after a roaring international season, didn't have a great outing by his standards.

The biggest flop for KKR has been their Rs 23.75 crore call back of Venkatesh Iyer. 142 runs in 11 matches and if one removes 60 scored in a single game, then the MP cricketer's tally would be a mere 82 runs from 10 games.

Add to it, he doesn't even bowl now and owners Shah Rukh Khan and Jay Mehta can't be faulted if they have some tough questions from CEO Venky Mysore on Iyer's exorbitant price tag.

There is a tendency for a lot of teams to hide behind the veneer of "auction dynamic", a term used to justify illogical buys. Iyer's purchase fits in that category.

KKR's batting failures is highlighted by the fact that skipper Rahane, not known for his T20 prowess, is their best batter in this edition by a distance with 375 runs in his kitty.

Another statistical input would also surprise many. The KKR captain, not exactly known for his big hits, has 20 sixes in the tournament so far, highest for his team with Windies duo of Sunil Narine and Andre Russell having 16 and 14 maximums to their credit.

The failure of Russell and Rinku to consistently hit big between overs 16 to 20 also cost them dearly.

Teams

Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Manish Pandey, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rinku Singh, Luvnith Sisodia, Quinton de Kock, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Varun Chakravarthy, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Mayank Markande, Umran Malik, Anrich Nortje, Spencer Johnson.

SRH: Pat Cummins (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Atharva Taide, Abhinav Manohar, Aniket Verma, Sachin Baby, Smaran Ravichandran, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Travis Head, Harshal Patel, Kamindu Mendis, Wiaan Mulder, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Shami, Rahul Chahar, Simarjeet Singh, Zeeshan Ansari, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga.

Match Starts: 7:30 pm.