Stats: KKR and SRH have bowling woes but their batsmen have charged them to IPL final 2024 | Ipl News

Batsmen win you games but bowlers win you tournaments has been the ubiquitous cricketing cliche but the Indian Premier League 2024 has proved otherwise. Both teams Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders which have reached the finals have been powerhouses with their batting but have had brittle bowling attacks. In fact, three of the top five teams with the best economy rates for the season are Chennai Super Kings (8.83 RPO), Punjab Kings (9.41 RPO) and Gujarat Titans (9.62 RPO) and none made it into the playoffs.
Travis Head-Abhishek Sharma (11.47 RPO in PP) and Phil Salt-Sunil Narine (11.05 RPO in PP) are the top two amongst scoring runs in the Powerplay, taking power-hitting to a new dimension. Though both teams have been consently posting big totals the way they have been doing is quite contrasting. SRH tops the scoring rate in Powerplay but when entire innings are taken into consideration, it is KKR (10.70 RPO) at the top of the charts ahead of SRH (10.30 RPO).
When Head and Abhishek fired, SRH outplayed the opposition in the first six but for KKR even when Salt and Narine fell early, the batting still possessed power hitters like Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Venkatesh Iyer… Mitchell Starc. For SRH if the dynamic opening duo falls early the responsibility to score big completely falls on Henrich Klassen.

Batting
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Kolkata Knight Riders

Powerplay (1-6 overs)
11.47 (1st among 10 teams)
11.05 (2nd)

Middle overs (7-16)
9.09 RPO (3rd)
9.91 (1st)

Death overs (17-20)
11.61 (5th)
13.02 (1st)

However, both teams’ bowling has been the weaker department. Kolkata has been conceding runs at 9.24 RPO which is the sixth worst while Hyderabad is lingering at second-last on the table conceding 9.87 RPO.
Earlier in the tournament KKR conceded the highest chase of 262 runs against Punjab Kings at Eden Gardens. Punjab got to the total losing just two wickets and 10 balls to spare. Against Rajasthan Royals, they couldn’t defend 223 runs.
Though KKR had the best spin attack in the tournament Mitchell Starc’s poor form and lack of an experienced Indian seamer proved costly in the first half of the tournament. It was only after the introduction of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy in the middle overs that things would stabilize and Shreyas Iyer would gain some control of the games.

Bowling
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Kolkata Knight Riders

Powerplay (1-6 overs)
9.31 RPO (5th among 10 teams)
10.29 RPO (2nd worst)

Middle overs (7-16)
9.78 (2nd worst)
8.40(2nd best)

Death overs (17-20)
11.98 RPO (3rd worst)
11.22 RPO (5th)

Against Mumbai Indians, though SRH piled up a massive 277, Hardik Pandya’s side was in the game for the majority of the chase. Thanks to lack of dew and pitch slowing down on the night SRH got out of jail. It was a similar tale against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Chinnaswamy. Despite scoring 287 runs which is the highest total in all T20s the bowling unit never looked comfortable.
While KKR’s strength has been spin it has been the other way around for SRH. The pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Cummins and Jaydev Unadkat did their job but the side lacked a world-class spinner in the middle overs. Mayank Markande was put to the sword in the first half of the tournament and lost his spot. With Wanindu Hasaranga injured and no other Indian special spinner, Cummins had to use all-rounder Shabaz Ahmed as the first-choice spinner in games which gave average results. Until Ahmed sparkled in the eliminator. In the tail-end, Sri Lankan wr spinner Vijaykanth Viyaskanth was given an opportunity but after the bashing he took against KKR in Qualifier 1 in Ahmedabad, he too was dropped for the Eliminator against Rajasthan Royals on Friday.
SRH Head Coach Daniel Vettori had a different take on the way the bowlers need to be looked at in the modern game. “It is just a different world. You have to change your perspective on what is a good performance rather than looking at 8-8.50. As long as your economy stays under the game economy you have done an exceptional job,” he would say.

“When you post big scores you expect teams to come hard and that is what we have seen so far. All the 200-run scores that teams are prepared to come hard and there is an understanding that the wickets are good, we just have to navigate our way through that.” Vettori would reason behind bowlers going for plenty. However, irrespective of all the bowling flaws both SRH and KKR have made it to the final.
Get latest updates on IPL 2024 from IPL Points Table to Teams, Schedule, Most Runs and Most Wickets along with live score updates for all matches. Also get Sports news and more cricket updates.