The 2024 champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) finished their underwhelming campaign in the Indian Premier League (IPL) this year with a shambolic 110-run defeat to Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Sunday, May 25.
The Knight Riders were never in the game after Pat Cummins won the toss and opted to bat first on a belter of a track. Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head put on a 92-run stand inside the first seven overs before Heinrich Klaasen, who was promoted to No. 3, smashed the joint third-fastest century in IPL history off 37 balls, taking SRH to a mammoth 278/3 in the first innings. In reply, the Ajinkya Rahane-led side was bowled out for 168 as Harsh Dubey (3 for 34), Eshan Malinga (3 for 31), and Jaydev Unadkat (3 for 24) bagged three wickets apiece.
After KKR’s disappointing campaign came to an end, Virender Sehwag slammed the management for sending Ajinkya Rahane to bat at No. 3 ahead of the power-hitters. The former India opener said that the three-time champions should have followed Lucknow Super Giants and Chennai Super Kings’ strategy as they shuffled their batting order around in the quest to find their ideal combination.
“It is not written anywhere that a captain has to bat in the top three. Look at Pant, he was sending players ahead of him, because they were in form, and LSG took advantage of that,” Sehwag conveyed via Cricbuzz.
“KKR could have done the same. This was the team management and the coaching staff’s responsibility. See, even CSK did it against GT. Shivam Dube and Dewald Brevis came up the order, they changed that up from the recent matches,” he added.
Rahane looks back after KKR’s failure to defend their title
KKR finished at No. 8 on the points table, having registered five wins and seven defeats from 14 games in IPL 2025. Two of their matches were washed out. Meanwhile, SRH – KKR’s opposition in the 2024 Finals, moved to No. 6 with their win on Sunday after hovering in the bottom three for most parts of the season. The tournament is done for both the franchises, as they look to prepare on coming good in the next season.
