Kolkata Knight Riders lifted the IPL trophy for the third time in 10 years with a comprehensive 8-wicket triumph over Sunrisers Hyderabad at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday. KKR players, owners, management and fans were all overjoyed with the team's victory at the marquee event. But one aspect of the festivities that caught everyone's eye was skipper Shreyas Iyer's recreation of Argentina captain Lionel Messi's post-Fifa World Cup 2022 victory celebrations.
Notably, after being handed the IPL 2024 trophy by BCCI president Roger Binny and secretary Jay Shah, Iyer recreated Messi's magical celebration after the FIFA final before finally handing the trophy to Rinku Singh.
Speaking after the match to broadcasters, Iyer said, “It is pleasing and the performance has been flawless throughout. I am running out of words right now. We have been tremendous right from game one, and when we stepped [out] all we demanded from ourselves was to back each other no matter the situation. The game could have gone either way. They have been playing phenomenal cricket, SRH, throughout the season.”
"Today, we were lucky enough to bowl first and, at the same time, every situation went in our favour. Thanks to SRH the way they have played throughout the season. They have been simply phenomenal." the KKR skipper added.
KKR bowlers had a dominating run on Sunday as they dismissed the Sunrisers' batting line-up for 113. Andre Russel was the pick of the KKR bowlers with 3 wickets to his name while Harshit Rana and Mitchell Starc took two scalps each.
In reply, KKR lost the early wicket of Sunil Narine but then stitched together a crucial partnership between Venkatesh Iyer and Rahmanullah Gurbaz. Despite losing Gurbaz late in the innings, KKR comfortably won the IPL 2024 trophy with a single from Venkatesh Iyer in the 11th over of the match.
