Former England captain Kevin Pietersen has backed Kolkata Knight Riders to clinch their third IPL title as according to him they will be favourites against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the summit clash on Sunday. KKR have already beaten Sunrisers twice this season – first in the league stage and then recently in the qualifier 1. The Purple Army finished the league stage at the top of the table and suffered only three defeats this season thus far.
In qualifier 1 in Ahmedabad, the Sunrisers failed to put up a fight against Knight Riders and lost the one-sided battle as they will feel the added pressure in the final to overcome the ghosts of the recent past.
Pietersen pointed out that SRH succumbed under pressure as Pat Cummins made a few poor decisions which allowed KKR to dominate the tie in Ahmedabad.
“I didn’t like the way the Sunrisers threw in the towel the other evening in Ahmedabad, and I think it’s going to put them on the back foot for the start on Sunday. The way they just finished that game off, Pat Cummins gave Travis Head the ball, and Shreyas Iyer just went bang, bang, bang. It’ll give KKR a lot of confidence going into the finals knowing that they’ve already beaten SRH a couple of days ago,” Pietersen said on Star Sports.
Hyderabad won the IPL title in 2016 under David Warner’s leadership, and it’s time for Pat Cummins to emulate the same as his countrymen. SRH splashed a whopping INR 20.5 crore on Cummins in the IPL 2024 auction after he led Australia to both the World Test championship title and an ODI World Cup triumph last year and the IPL title will add another feather to his captain’s cap.
However, the former England skipper asserted that Sunrisers’ structure knows how to win the big titles as they recently won the SA20 title.
“So it’s going to be really hard for the Sunrisers to get up, but I think they will because they won the SA20, so they know how to win. They’ve got a structure that knows how to win, and when you’ve got that belief within the franchise, that belief within the ownership, then momentum has its own way. I’m actually very, very happy that SRH got into the final just because of what they’ve done for the game of cricket in the last eight to nine weeks. I think it is absolutely right that the Sunrisers are in this final,” he added.
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