Sunrisers Hyderabad ended an IPL season of ‘what ifs’ with a power-packed batting effort just like it had started, etching a crushing 110-run victory over Kolkata Knight Riders riding on Heinrich Klaasen’s 37-ball century in Delhi on Sunday. In the season opener, SRH scored an imposing 286 against Rajasthan Royals and on this day at the half-filled Feroz Shah Kotla, Klaasen (105 not out off 39 balls) and Travis Head (76 off 40 balls), who had saved his best for the last, helped the ‘Orange Army’ post an unassailable 278 for 3 in 20 overs.

Despite Kotla track being a featherbed, KKR were never in the hunt as they managed 168 in 18.4 overs with seasoned Jaydev Unadkat (2/23 in 3 overs) picking initial wickets with his clever change of pace.

Left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey (3/34 in 4 overs) and Sri Lankan pacer Eshan Malinga (3/31 in 3.4 overs) also had a good outing.

SRH skipper Pat Cummins and the entire team is bound to feel disappointed about how they performed in between the first and the last games.

On flat tracks, SRH looked menacing with their batters in flow but on pitches where they needed to adapt and bat differently, they fell flat.

Eventually, they won six games, one game was washed out and lost at least two games they should have won.

The rub of the green didn’t go SRH’s way when it came to small margins and that ultimately became the reason for them missing out on play-off qualifications. Klaasen (105 not out off 39 balls) was way more severe compared to Head as he completed his half-century off just 18 balls after coming in at the fall of opener Abhishek Sharma (32 off 16 balls).

The South African literally continued the mayhem even after Head departed, hitting seven fours and nine sixes, most of them into the second tier of the stands here.

Klaasen muscled the KKR bowlers, mainly in the straighter arc and the likes of Anrich Nortje (0/60 in 4 overs), Harshit Rana (0/40 in 3 overs), Varun Chakravarthy (0/54 in 3 overs) and Sunil Narine (2/42 in 4 overs) were punished on one of the flattest decks on offer.

On a ground where SRH had set the new batting record in 2024, scoring 125 in Powerplay against Delhi Capitals, Head and his partner in crime Abhishek added 79 in the first six overs to set the tone.

The Kotla track was one where any batter could just plonk his front foot and hit through the line or rock back to pull it over mid-wicket.

Both Head and Abhishek initially made room and carted pacers over extra cover with utter disdain.

The KKR bowling attack has suffered a lot this season whether it has been home or away games.

On smooth decks, their spinners Chakravarthy and Narine didn’t have enough bite and when it came to the pacers, Harshit’s propensity to use cross-seam variations backfired badly.

Harshit of 2024 didn’t depend so much on slower deliveries and bowled the heavy deliveries, short pitched stuff and hard length balls more frequently.

As far as Nortje is concerned, the lack of game time was apparent as this was his second match and throughout the duration, he kept searching for that ideal length where he could keep the batter quiet.

The only bowler to escape with slightly lesser punishment was Vaibhav Arora (1/39 in 4 overs).

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