Kolkata Knight Riders became three-time Indian Premier League champions after beating Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight wickets in a lop-sided IPL 2024 final at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday. (As It Happened)
The 2012 and 2014 champions dominated the Sunrisers from the very first over with the IPL's most expensive buy Mitchell Starc delivering a dream opening spell, including a ball of the tournament contender.
Here are the first reactions from the victorious camp helmed by Gautam Gambhir, the Indian legend who led the franchise to their previous two IPL wins:
Venkatesh Iyer, who hit the winning runs for KKR gave all the credit to Abhishek Nayar for the success of the franchise. Nayar has developed the Indian core in the KKR unit being the mentor of their KKR Academy programme and is a very well-known figure in the domestic circuit.
"Really happy, credit goes to Abhishek Nayar, all the credit in the world, the way he's worked for the franchise. He was the one who built this Indian core. We waited for 10 years, credit to the management and the coaching staff", he said.
Nitish Rana, the vice-captain of the KKR said that he wanted to win the trophy for their new mentor Gautam Gambhir. He shared an incident which displayed the team's willingness to lift the trophy.
"When GG bhai was appointed as the mentor I had messaged him and said I am very happy he's coming back to KKR, but he said that he would be happy if we are on that podium lifting the trophy", said Rana.
Varun Chakaravarthy, who has taken 21 wickets in the IPL 2024 and is the second in the race for the Purple cap, also hailed Abhishek Nayar after the final win.
"This has been a great season for me. All I can think of now is the person who has built the Indian core - Abhishek Nayar", said the most successful bowler of KKR this season.
It was a dream come true moment for Rinku Singh who has been associated with the team for the past seven years. He gave all the credit to Gautam Gambhir.
"Outstanding feeling right now. The dream has come true - I have been here for 7 years and we are so happy. Credit to GG sir. I will finally lift the IPL trophy", said the explosive southpaw.
Abhishek Nayar, who is a brother-like figure for all the young players in the KKR dressing room was emotional and was very happy after finally being an IPL Champion 16 years later.
"It means everything. It has taken a very long time. I have been with the IPL for 16 years and it has taken me so many years to be a champion. I'm, the big man here, this means a lot for him (on Russell)", said Nayar.
It was all possible after the accurate bowling from the KKR bowlers and expressive batting from the top order who took them past the line comfortably.
Mitchell Starc's early blows and Harshit Rana's accurate deliveries kept SRH under pressure from the first over. Starc bowled the man in form, Abhishek Sharma with a peach of a delivery and then got rid of Rahul Tripathi in his third over. Vaibhav Arora dismissed the destructive opener Travis Head on his first delivery.
SRH's batters never recovered from that and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. They were eventually restricted to 113 all out in 18.3 overs. This was the lowest total by any team in any IPL final.
Kolkata Knight Riders successfully chased down the target in 10.3 overs with eight wickets and 57 balls to spare. This is the biggest win by any IPL team in the final with the ball-margin.
