IPL 2024 final result: Kolkata Knight Riders beat Sunrisers Hyderabad to win title

When this year’s IPL began a little over two months ago, few were predicting that KKR and Sunrisers would be contesting the final.

Sunrisers had appointed Cummins captain, his first time skippering a side in T20 cricket, while KKR’s decision to pay a record 24.75 crore Indian rupees (£2.3m) for Starc was also being questioned.

The Australian left-armer had not featured in the IPL since 2015 and when he went wicketless in three of his first four games – recording figures of 0-53, 0-47 and 0-29 – the questions only got louder.

KKR were still winning, though, with England opener Phil Salt impressing at the top of the order before he departed, and as the tournament progressed, Starc provided an answer.

The 34-year-old added an exclamation point with the fifth ball of the final – a fast, late-swinging delivery that whistled past Abhishek to clip off stump.

By the time he took his second of a superb opening spell, Vaibhav Arora had removed Travis Head first ball and Sunrisers were in trouble at 21-3.

Any attempts to counter-attack were swiftly shut down by a relentless KKR bowling unit and, despite their heroics through the competition, Sunrisers hopes appeared over at the halfway stage.

Cummins removed Sunil Narine early in the chase but Venkatesh went four, six, six to start his next over and by the time the powerplay was over, so was the contest.