IPL 2024 Final: Kolkata Knight Riders vs Sunrisers Hyderabad Player Battles to Watch Out For

IPL 2024 Final: 73 games and two months later, the moment for which all the Cricket fans across the globe were waiting for has finally arrived! It's time for the Final of the 2024 Tata Indian Premier League as two-time winners Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and 2016 champions Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) are set to take on each other in the most important game of the season today at Chennai's M.A Chidambaram Stadium. These two teams have played excellent Cricket since the start of IPL 2024 in March and now they will fight it out against each other to get their hands on the iconic Indian Premier League Trophy.?

The 38,200 seating capacity of Chennai's Chepauk Stadium is going to be completely filled and the crowd will be eager to witness which team will finish out on top in this all-important summit clash. The 24 players who will be taking the field in the final today will have just one goal in their mind and that will be to lift the iconic trophy of the world's best T20 league. 

Before the final, the Shreyas Iyer-led Kolkata Knight Riders defeated SRH in the first qualifier by eight wickets and booked their spot in the title-deciding clash. Sunrisers Hyderabad had to win against the Rajasthan Royals in the second Qualifier at any cost if they wanted to qualify for the final and they did exactly that as they won the match by a margin of 36 runs. 

The Knight Riders have already defeated the Sunrisers twice in the current edition of the IPL but can they make it a hat trick of wins against SRH by triumphing in the final or will Hyderabad end the winning momentum of the two-time champions and secure a victory when it matters the most? No matter which team ends on the winning side, this summit clash will definitely be a nail-biting one and a great one to watch. 

Ahead of this all-important title-deciding encounter between KKR and SRH, let's take a look at three player battles that are going to be worth watching out for:

KKR vs SRH IPL 2024 Final: Three Player Battles To Watch Out For

1 . Andre Russell vs Abhishek Sharma

Sunrisers Hyderabad opener Abhishek Sharma is a batter who can turn out to be the match-winner in the KKR vs SRH encounter. The Southpaw has been scoring runs this season at a strike rate of more than 200 and if he stays at the crease beyond the powerplay, then he can definitely help his side go past the 200 runs mark. 

However, he will have to be wary of the threat posed by KKR's Andre Russell. Russell has dismissed the young Indian opener twice in the Indian Premier League in just nine deliveries and has conceded just 11 runs against Abhishek. Will Russell continue his dominance against Sharma or will the Southpaw try something different and edge out Russell in the head-to-head battle? The answers to these questions will be given to us in the final tonight. 

2. Mitchell Starc vs Travis Head

We all know what happened when Mitchell Starc and Travis Head clashed against each other in the first Qualifier. Starc needed just two deliveries to break the stumps of Travis Head and that too for a duck. Notably, the KKR speedster has dismissed his fellow Aussie teammate a total of five times in IPL and domestic Australian competitions and Head has been dismissed without scoring a single run on four of those occasions. So, the Starc vs Head battle will be an exciting one to watch out for in the final. 

3. Varun Chakaravarthy vs Heinrich Klaasen

Heinrich Klaasen slammed a crucial half-century against Rajasthan Royals in Qualifier Two and he has been in amazing form this season. On his day, Klaasen can prove to be the opposition bowler's worst nightmare and there's a reason why he is regarded as Modern-day Cricket?s most destructive batter in the world. If the SRH and Protean wicketkeeper batter is allowed to stay at the crease till the end, then KKR bowlers will have to prepare themselves for a tough outing. 

But, KKR spinner Varun Chakaravarthy is someone who is known to get crucial breakthroughs at regular intervals and he has already managed to pick up 20 wickets in 14 games this season. Varun also hails from Tamil Nadu and has played the majority of his Cricket at the Chepauk Stadium and he knows how suitable the pitch of Chennai is for the spinners. He's a tough bowler to attack in helpful conditions and Klaasen even gave his wicket away to the KKR leggie in the first Qualifier. Klaasen would like to play carefully against Chakaravarthy this time around in the final while Varun will be looking to get the better of the SRH hard hitter once again.?

CHECK: Match Preview, Playing 11, Head-to-Head, Dream11 Team, Pitch, Toss, Weather Report and Live Streaming of IPL Final 2024