New Delhi, May 24 (IANS) The contest that ended IPL 2024 is now back in the business end of the ongoing season, but with very little context. Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders, already eliminated from the race to IPL 2025 playoffs, will aim to sign off from their respective nightmarish campaigns with a consolation win when they face-off in a clash at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Sunday evening.

IPL 2025 promised a lot of fireworks from SRH’s power-packed batting line-up after setting new batting standards in their runners-up finish in 2024. But they failed to touch those lofty batting heights, and with the bowling not being at its efficient best, the sun barely rose for the Hyderabad-based outfit in IPL 2025.

But SRH still have the edge over KKR, especially after denting Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s hopes of a top two finish in the points table with a 42-run win in Lucknow, thanks to Ishan Kishan and Eshan Malinga. Moreover, with KKR not taking the field after their May 7 clash against Chennai Super Kings, it means that SRH have more game time under their belt.

With the pitch at Kotla expected to be another batting beauty, it should help the likes of Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klassen and Aniket Verma to showcase their six-hitting skills to the fullest and post a wacky high total, which can be firmly out of KKR’s reach.

On the other hand, KKR’s season really didn’t justify their billing of being the defending champions in this season. This time last year saw them run all the way to the trophy and bask in the joy of winning their third title. But now, the side needs a win to close a season they would like to take lessons from and get back to the drawing board to come back stronger in IPL 2026.

KKR never had a strong home run, and it didn’t help that their run-ins with curator Sujan Mukherjee kept the headline mill running. The aspects where KKR faltered badly have been the batting – unsettled opening pair, middle order not standing up to big expectations and death overs batting not being at its best constantly.

With the ball, KKR have been strictly middling and one would expect them to draw inspiration from their earlier win in New Delhi to end a season full of frustrations for them – despite the pre-game odds favouring SRH at the moment.

When: Sunday, May 25 at 7:30 pm IST

Where: Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi

Where to watch: Star Sports Network (TV) and JioHotstar (live streaming)

Squads:

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Abhinav Manohar, Pat Cummins (c), Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga, Mohammed Shami, Harsh Dubey, Sachin Baby, Zeeshan Ansari, Simarjeet Singh, Kamindu Mendis, Atharva Taide, Wiaan Mulder, and Rahul Chahar.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Manish Pandey, Quinton de Kock (wk), Anrich Nortje, Rinku Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Mayank Markande, Varun Chakravarthy, Spencer Johnson, Chetan Sakariya, Luvnith Sisodia, Vaibhav Arora, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Harshit Rana, and Shivam Shukla.

–IANS

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