The Sunrisers stormed through to the final with a 36-run victory over the Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the second qualifier in Chennai last night.   KKR won the toss and chose to bowl, which incidentally SRH Pat Cummins said he would also have preferred. 

But sent in to bat first SRH managed decent 175 with Trent Boult and Avesh Kahn who did most of the damage. Both got three wickets each – Boult for 45 runs and Kahn for 27.  Heinrich Klaassen once again came to play and scored a magnificent 50 off 34 balls, before being bowled by Sandeep Sharma. Travis Head (34) and Rahul Tripathi (37) also contributed to the final total.

But it was SRH’s bowling attack which truly stole the show and guaranteed them the win.   RR started well and finished the power play on 51 for 1.  But in the middle overs, SRH’s spinners put on their best performance of the season and literally turned the game in their team’s favour.

Shabaz Ahmed took the wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal, who look set for a big score when he was caught by Abdul Farooq on 42.  Ahmed also took the scalps of Riyan Das (6) and Ravichandran Ashwin (0). Abishek Sharma also joined the party and took the wickets of Sanju Samson (10) and West-Indies dangerman Shimron Hetmeyr. Druv Jurel scored a superb 56 not out, but it wasn’t enough to get the win for the men from Rajasthan.

Sunday’s final takes place in Chennai and the match starts at 16:00.

OFM Sport/Ilse Smalberger