The Kolkata Knight Riders led by Shreyas Iyer emerged victorious in the IPL final on Sunday at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. After dominating the league stage they outplayed SunRisers Hyderabad in Qualifier 1 and the final match securing their third championship title.
With the conclusion of the IPL 2024 final parallels emerged with the Womens Premier League 2024 final. The summit showdown of the WPL witnessed Royal Challengers Bengaluru led by Smriti Mandhana securing a significant victory over Delhi Capitals.
On that topic, let’s examine the three similarities between the IPL and WPL 2024 finals.
1. Australian captain vs Indian captain
Pat Cummins emerged as the champion of 2023 guiding the Australian team to unparalleled heights of success. Australia clinched victory in the World Test Championship and ODI World Cup under his extraordinary leadership. Nonetheless Cummins triumphant journey hit a roadblock in IPL 2024 signaling a poignant contrast to his earlier feats.
Shreyas Iyer demonstrated his prowess as a leader during the 2020 season by steering Delhi Capitals to the final. Leading the KKR side from 2022 onwards he secured the seventh position in the last two seasons.
Nonetheless, Iyer ultimately won the trophy this time, and he was praised by the cricket community for his tactics and bowling adjustments.
The Delhi Capitals were guided in the WPL final by former Australian captain Meg Lanning. With two ODI World Cups and five T20 World Cups, she had a strong track record as a captain.
Meanwhile, Smriti Mandhana has led Royal Challengers Bengaluru since the 2023 season. Despite failing to reach the semi-finals in their first season, RCB turned things around this year and won the championship.
2. Team batting first bowled out for 113 in 18.3 overs
The Knight Riders bowlers controlled from the first over, when Mitchell Starc delivered a ripper to dismiss Abhishek Sharma. In the following over, Vaibhav Arora created an edge of Travis Head to put SRH under strain.
The remainder of the assault, which included Andre Russell, Harshit Rana, Sunil Narine, and Varun Chakravarthy, were superb in terms of line-length, resulting in repeated team breakthroughs. As a consequence, KKR packaged SRH for 113.
The Delhi Capitals began the WPL finals on a high note, but Shreyanka Patil and Sophie Molineux removed the first batters, causing a setback. Patil (4/12) and Molineux (3/20) performed admirably, but DC were all out for 113 in 18.3 overs.
3. Side led by an Indian captain won by 8 wickets
Another notable resemblance between the IPL and WPL 2024 finals is that the victorious team was headed by the Indian captain, who won by eight wickets.
Venkatesh Iyer (52* off 26) spearheaded the assault for Shreyas Iyer’s KKR. KKR set the record for the quickest chase with 57 balls to spare.
On the other hand, skipper Smriti Mandhana (31) and Ellyse Perry (35*) were key contributions as RCB completed the chase in the last over of the WPL final.
