IPL 2024 final: Kolkata Knight Riders crush SRH by 8 wickets to win third IPL title
Chennai, May 26: Kolkata Knight Riders lifted their third trophy in the Indian Premier League with a crushing eight-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in a completely one-sided final here on Sunday.
Having lost the toss, KKR produced a clinical effort with the ball to dismiss SRH for 113, the lowest ever total in an IPL title clash.
KKR chased down the target of 114 with as many as 57 balls to spare. Venkatesh Iyer remained not out on 52 off 26 balls.
Mitchell Starc (2/14), Andre Russell (3/19) and Harshit Rana (2/24) were the most successful bowlers for the Knight Riders, as SRH simply failed to turn up for the big game.
Opting to bat first, SRH were off to a disastrous start as they lost their top guns Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head with just six runs on the board, with the latter getting dismissed for a first-ball duck to a beautiful outswinger.
Before that, Abhishek was bowled by Mitchell Starc on the fifth ball of the first over, a peach of a delivery opening up the left-hander before hitting the top of the off stump.
SRH were in all sorts of trouble as Starc accounted for the wicket of Rahul Tripathi to leave them reeling at 21/3 in the fifth over, the swing doing the trick for KKR bowlers early on.
First-change bowler Harshit Rana continued the good work and got rid of Nitish Reddy (13). Andre Russell dismissed Aiden Markram in his first over as SRH slipped to 62/5 in the 11th over.
SRH could not recover from there.
Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 113 all out in 18.3 overs (Pat Cummins 24; Mitchell Starc 2/14, Andre Russell 3/19, Harshit Rana 2/24).
Kolkata Knight Riders: 114 for 2 in 10.3 overs (Venkatesh Iyer 52 not out).
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Himachal: 6 held in infant trafficking case, total 9 arrested
Dharamshala (PTI): The Himahcal Pradesh Police has nabbed six members of an inter-state gang involved in trafficking newborn, taking the total number of arrests in the case to nine, officials said on Tuesday.
Of the total arrested, seven are women, they said, adding that gang used to get infants through illegal means and give them to childless couples in exchange for money.
On February 21, the Dehra Police had busted a gang and rescued a minor following a complaint lodged by Kangra resident Rohit Rana on February 17 in which he alleged that a person named Deepak Anand had cheated him of Rs 23,500 on the pretext of arranging the adoption of a newborn. An FIR was immediately registered.
Deepak Anand (40), a native of Punjab's Jalandhar who lived in Kangra, was arrested and produced before the court. He was remanded to five days' police custody, according to superintendent of Police (SP) Dehra Mayank Choudhary.
Investigation revealed that Deepak was working as an agent for a Punjab-based gang involved in trafficking of babies. He used to identify and contact childless couples and connect them with gang members operating from Punjab.
Subsequently, two women -- Maninderjit Kaur alias Ritu (47), and Anita alias Asha (59) -- were nabbed from Batala and Jalandhar and remanded to three days' police custody.
Financial scrutiny revealed transactions amounting to Rs 4.85 lakh in connection with the illegal deal. A minor was also recovered and as per orders of the Juvenile Justice Board, the child has been handed over to the Special Adoption Agency for care, protection and further legal proceedings, the police said.
The police constituted special investigation teams and carried out an intensive probe, examining technical evidence and financial trails and six more persons were arrested from various locations in Punjab on Monday, Choudhary added.
The six arrested are Neelam Singh (54), Rimpi (38), Jasmel Kaur (60), Karamjit Kaur alias (34), all from Bathinda in Punjab, Kiran (30) from Sirsa in Haryana and Kulwinder (45) from Jalandhar in Punjab.
All accused are being produced before the competent court, investigations are underway and further disclosures are expected as interrogation continues, the police added.
