Chennai, India

SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) will face Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL 2024) final on Sunday (May 26) after beating Rajasthan Royal (RR) in Qualifier 2 on Friday. In a low-scoring affair at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, SRH beat RR by 36 runs and will now look to end their eight-year drought to win an IPL trophy. On the flip side, RR’s journey comes to an end after finishing third in the standings, and will have to wait another season to land their first IPL title since 2008.

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SRH beat RR in Qualifier 2

Despite being renowned for its high-scoring season, the evening saw SRH defend 175 runs as they restricted RR to 139/7 in their 20 overs. Having asked SRH to bat first after winning the toss, Sanju Samson and Co restricted SRH to 175/9 with Trent Boult (45/3) and Avesh Khan (27/3) making the difference with the ball. Travis Head was silent on the evening compared to his other batting displays in the tournament as he scored 34 off 18.

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However, it was Henrich Klassen’s 50-run knock that propelled SRH beyond 150 while Rahul Tripathi (37) and Shahbaz Khan (18) also played handy knocks late in the innings.

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RR collapse with the bat

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After Jos Buttler’s departure, RR experienced another batting collapse as they went from 65/1 to 92/6 in no time. Shahbaz Ahmed with three wickets was the chief architect while Abhishek Sharma bagged a brace. Both Pat Cummins and T Natarajan scalped one wicket each to break the backbone of RR’s middle order.

Dhruv Jurel's unbeaten 56 and Yashasvi Jaiswal's 42 off 21 were the only standout innings from the batting unit before the teams suffered a knockout blow in Qualifier 2.

The win for SRH will now see them face KKR in Sunday’s final at the same venue in Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium. This is SRH’s third final having previously played in the 2016 and 2018 showdowns, winning the first one. KKR on the other hand will stage their fourth final, having won twice in 2012 and 2014 and lost in the 2021 showpiece against Chennai Super Kings.