No playoffs, just pride: Last year's finalists fight for consolation prize

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Cricket is a great leveller. Just as success is fleeting, failure too is inevitable, and it's this very uncertainty that defines the beauty of sport. This holds especially true in T20 cricket, where momentum swings wildly like a misfiring seesaw. KKR and SRH, last year's finalists, are set to face off once again, this time in their final league game of the season, with only the timeless cliche of playing for pride on the line.

SRH began the tournament in emphatic fashion, but their high-octane batting template soon lost its edge. Opposing teams responded with sharp strategies to blunt SRH's firepower, and with their bowling built around containment rather than aggression, any stutter with the bat left the side exposed. Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma will look to rediscover their early-season flair on a surface that often rewards strokeplay.

KKR, on the other hand, have been inefficient in handling spin and the middle overs batting often cost them crucial impetus against tough opponents. The bowling hasn't really done a bad job for KKR, but their batting issues are what proved to be critical. The holders have also had to part ways with a few key players from their title-winning squad of 2024, but they still have a decent core and some sensible mini-auction buys.

When: Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Kolkata Knight Riders, IPL 2025 at 7.30 PM Local
Where: Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi
What to expect: Hot weather with temperatures hovering around the mid-30s and high humidity. Pitches here have been high scoring and the small ground dimensions mean that six-hitting will be in business.

Head to Head: SRH 9-KKR 20. The Knight Riders have also won six of the last eight fixtures between the sides, including last year's final.

Probable XII: SRH – Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan(wk), Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Reddy, Abhinav Manohar, Aniket Verma, Pat Cummins(c), Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga.
KKR – Rahmanullah Gurbaz(wk), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Venkatesh Iyer, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ramandeep Singh, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, Anrich Nortje/Spencer Johnson