In the past year, Pat Cummins has consistently been part of major cricket trophy photoshoots, twice nudging Rohit Sharma out of the frame before triumphing in finals shortly after. Sunday’s clash pits two strategic, powerful batting teams—KKR and SRH—against each other, each with recent turnarounds after lackluster seasons. KKR revived past glory by rehiring Gambhir, while SRH trusted Cummins’ trophy-winning prowess. Despite their shared batting prowess, their distinct bowling strategies add intrigue. Their recent one-sided qualifier offers no guarantees for the final, where Shreyas must remain wary of Cummins’ knack for seizing crucial moments.
IPL 2024 Final, KKR vs SRH: MA Chidambaram Stadium Pitch Report
The presence of dew is uncertain; it stayed away during the second qualifier, but Sunday’s conditions are unpredictable. Even Pat Cummins acknowledged the impossibility of making an educated guess about its occurrence. The final will be held on pitch #4, a red soil wicket, where CSK recently lost to PBKS. In that match, Punjab’s spinners Harpreet Brar and Rahul Chahar took 4 for 33 in 8 overs, aided by dew as PBKS successfully chased down CSK’s 162/7.
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This game will test Cummins’s bowling management. KKR’s lineup includes left-handers at the top (Narine) and in the middle (Venkatesh Iyer and Rinku Singh), limiting Cummins’s ability to use his recent match-winners, Abhishek Sharma and Shahbaz Ahmed. He may need to find a brief period with two right-handers at the crease to bowl an over or two from them while relying on his quicks for the majority of the innings. Additionally, Nitish Reddy’s bowling services might be called upon.