Pat Cummins vs the top side in the tournament: IPL final replay of the 2023 World Cup? Not many people can forget what happened on November 19, 2023, at least not in India.
In Ahmedabad, Australia faced the tournament’s top team, India, in the ODI World Cup final captained by Pat Cummins. With Cummins and his Australian teammates hoisting the coveted Cup, India’s devastating 10-match winning streak came to a stop. In the IPL 2024 championship game, Captain Marvel will have another chance to bring home a significant prize on Indian soil.
In a lopsided Qualifier 2, Pat Cummins’ SunRisers destroyed Sanju Samson’s Rajasthan by 36 runs, securing a final matchup with Shreyas Iyer’s KKR.
Second IPL Qualifier: SRH vs. RR
In a startling coincidence, the Pat Cummins-led team is playing the top team of the competition in the championship game once more. The World Cup final pitted Australia against India, while the IPL 2024 final will pit SRH against KKR on Sunday, May 26.
Here are some parallels between the current outcomes of the 2023 World Cup and the 2024 Indian Premier League.
- In their opening encounters, SunRisers fell to KKR and Australia to India.
- While KKR was the first team to get to the playoffs, India was the first team to reach the semi-finals.
- With nine victories in the league stages, India advanced to the semi-finals, while KKR earned a spot in the playoffs.
- India and KKR secured the top two spots in the points standings respectively.
- Mumbai player Rohit Sharma headed India, while Shreyas Iyer leads KKR. A Mumbai player also leads India.
THE FINAL GAME: KKR vs. SRH
Apart from the coincidences, Sunday’s final between KKR and SRH is a summit matchup between the two teams that are unquestionably the strongest in the competition. Shreyas Iyer has performed admirably in his captaincy while remaining under the radar. He has the support of Gautam Gambhir, who, since becoming KKR’s mentor at the beginning of the season, has completely changed the team.
In Qualifier 1, Shreyas Iyer seemed completely in control, smashing an undefeated 58 against SRH to guarantee KKR’s direct path to the Chennai final.
However, in a high-stress match on Friday, Pat Cummins demonstrated his tactical prowess as SRH overcame RR then overcame KKR. To assist them defend a par total of 175 after finding out that the eagerly awaited dew had not arrived in Chennai, Cummins went to his part-time spinners, Abhishek Sharma and Shahbaz Ahmed.
Cummins was unconcerned about facing left-handers in a match against a left-arm spinner. Abhishek, who had bowled just three overs prior to Qualifier 2, took two wickets for twenty-four runs in his allotted four overs, but Shahbaz emerged victorious as Player of the Match with statistics of 3 for 23 in four overs.
The only person to have led both Delhi in 2020 and KKR in 2024 to the IPL final is Shreyas Iyer. For his debut T20 cricket captaincy, Pat Cummins has guided SRH to the championship match.
Iyer, who missed out on the BCCI central contracts earlier this year, is hoping for a second chance. Having already added the World Cup and the World Test Championship to his trophy collection, Cummins is attempting to complete a hat-trick of highly sought-after awards. Yes, this Sunday’s IPL 2024 final looks to be epic!
