The league stage had sorted the sides. The playoffs do not. One night, and a campaign can be done. The loser goes to Qualifier 2. The winner goes to the final.
Qualifier 1 of the 2024 Indian Premier League. Sunrisers Hyderabad against Kolkata Knight Riders.
The ground was full. Knockout cricket. No next game for the side that loses this one, except the long way round.
In the box, the panel set the match for the broadcast.
"Welcome to the business end," Harsha Bhogle said. "Two ways of playing. Kolkata Knight Riders, led by Shreyas Iyer, have been taking the game on from the first over. They do not knock it around."
"They have," Ricky Ponting said. "The spin is not easy to read. The openers go from ball one. Tonight they run into Sunrisers Hyderabad. Under Siddanth Deva, this side has been taking matches in the powerplay and closing them with the ball."
"And look at the bowling," Ian Bishop said. "Arjun Tendulkar walks into Qualifier 1 with the Purple Cap. He has swung the new ball, top of off, seam up. Deva has given him attacking fields, and the wickets have come."
On the outfield, the captains walked out.
Shreyas Iyer, a side that had been hard to bowl to.
Siddanth Deva, in orange, the match face already on. He did not look at the stands or the cameras.
Siddanth tossed the coin.
"Tails," Iyer called.
It landed on the dry pitch. Heads.
Ravi Shastri stepped in. "Siddanth, you have won the toss in Qualifier 1. What is your decision?"
Deva looked into the lens.
"We are going to field first, Ravi bhai," he said.
"Fielding first in a playoff. Most sides want runs on the board. Why?"
"The pitch looks a bit tacky," Deva said. "There is grass, and it should do a bit under the lights with the new ball. We want them quiet early. We want to see the pace and the bounce, and we want to know the total. We back the bowling."
"And your eleven?"
"We are backing our core," Deva said. "David Warner, Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, myself, Heinrich Klaasen keeping, Glenn Phillips, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arjun Tendulkar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Markande, and T Natarajan."
Iyer named his KKR side. They shook hands.
The match was on.
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Sunil Narine and Phil Salt walked out with a clear job. Take the SRH quicks on in the powerplay. Put a total up.
Deva did not let them have the over.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled the first.
The swing king was on a short spell. Deva knew the leg. Use him where the new ball swings, then take him off. Bhuvi hit the corridor. Late away swing. Phil Salt could not free his hands.
In his second over, Bhuvi bowled the ball. Good length, angled in, seaming away late. Salt pushed hard, thick edge, taken in the slips.
Two overs. One wicket. 12 runs. The spell was done. Deva took him off.
At the other end, the Purple Cap.
Arjun Tendulkar did not try to bowl express pace. High action. Left-arm angle. The KKR top order was late on the front foot.
Narine tried to clear the front leg and hit him over mid-wicket. Arjun bowled the dipping inswinger. Late in the air, under the bat, into the front pad. Finger up. Plumb.
Later in the spell, an angled ball across Venkatesh Iyer. Iyer went for the square cut, beaten by the bounce, edge to the keeper.
Two wickets.
"That takes him to 27 for the tournament," Ian Bishop said. "He pitches it up, he finds the swing, and the field is set for the ball. KKR are behind the rate with the new ball."
The powerplay ended. The field spread. Shreyas Iyer tried to build.
Deva closed the gaps.
Mayank Markande tossed it up and got turn. A googly went through Rinku Singh and took the stumps. One wicket.
Nitish Kumar Reddy, the seam-bowling all-rounder, hit the deck. Andre Russell pulled, and the ball sat up at deep square leg. One wicket.
In the 14th, with KKR trying to break the hold, Deva gave his cap to the umpire.
The ground came up. The captain was on.
He did not bowl a long spell. He bowled for the wicket. A bouncer, 155, at Shreyas Iyer's ribs. No room. The fend hit the splice and went to short leg.
Two overs. One wicket. The rate did not move.
Death overs. KKR needed boundaries.
T Natarajan came back. He did not bowl the slower ball or the wide bouncer. Yorkers at the base of middle and leg.
The lower order had no shot for that length. Two bowled. One LBW.
Three wickets.
The board read 169 for 9. One ball left in the 20th.
The last batter hit it hard toward backward point and called for a single that was not there.
Glenn Phillips at point came in, picked the Kookaburra up on the move, and threw at the striker's end while his feet were off the ground.
Middle stump. The batter was short by a yard.
"RUN-OUT TO FINISH IT," Harsha Bhogle said. "Phillips hits the stumps. The fielding has been on the mark all night."
Kolkata Knight Riders were all out for 169.
The bowlers had bowled the fields Deva had set.
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Chasing 170 in a playoff is not a formality. This top order had been taking totals apart in the powerplay all season.
David Warner and Abhishek Sharma walked out with the same job as every other night.
The pitch under the lights was holding. Mitchell Starc and Vaibhav Arora were bowling as if the final depended on the over, because it did.
Over 0.4. Warner, trying to force it against Starc, came down the pitch. He looked to cut a back-of-a-length ball over point. It came on quicker than he wanted. Thick edge. First slip. Taken.
A duck.
Over 1.5. Abhishek, still going, tried to pull Arora over mid-wicket. The ball held. He was through the shot. It went up. Mid-on took it.
Inside two overs, both openers were gone.
The ground went quiet in the orange seats, then nervous.
In the dugout, Deva did not show a tell. The top order going was already in the plan.
He raised a hand to the fourth umpire.
The announcer confirmed it. Impact Player.
"Deva pulls the change now," Ricky Ponting said. "Abhishek Sharma is off. Kane Williamson is in. When the top order goes and the pitch is holding, you bring in the orthodox batter."
Kane Williamson walked out to Travis Head.
He did not look like a man walking after 2 wickets fell. He tapped his bat.
The KKR quicks were still in the over.
In the fifth, Travis Head, looking for a boundary, tried to hit through a swinging ball and chopped it onto his stumps.
Head was gone.
The board read 34 for 3.
Inside the powerplay, the top order that had been taking games away was gone. KKR's body language said the final was theirs.
The dressing-room doors opened.
Siddanth Deva came down the steps.
He met Kane Williamson in the middle and tapped gloves.
"The ball is stopping, Sid," Williamson said. "Starc is getting a bit of reverse already. This is not a pitch for hitting through the line."
"Then we do not hit through the line," Deva said. "We play late. Soft hands. We see their spinners off, and we rotate the strike."
The next ten overs were the other SRH innings. The one from the Rajasthan night. No aerial shots.
Sunil Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy came on to hold the rate. Deva and Williamson took the hold away.
Williamson used the depth of the crease, went back late, and punched the turning ball through the covers. Deva came down the pitch, smothered the spin, and pushed it into the gaps.
They did not hit boundaries. They ran. A tap on the leg side, and two. The fielders chased. The work moved from the batters to the field.
The stand held. Fifty. Then seventy-five. The KKR bowlers could not get the edge or the stumps. The orthodox defense did not give them a ball.
At the 15th over, SRH were 108 for 3.
Williamson, trying to lift the rate against a slower ball, sliced a drive to deep point.
Caught. 42.
He walked off with the ground applauding the innings that had stopped the collapse.
108 for 4.
62 still needed from 30 balls. The required rate was past twelve. The game was even.
Heinrich Klaasen walked out. The wicketkeeper who takes spin on.
Deva met him before he took guard.
"Heinrich," Deva said. "Do not look at the required rate. Do not look to rotate. And do not look after your wicket. I am batting through to the end. I am the anchor. I will not get out. Your job is to put the ball in the stands. If you miss and you are bowled, I do not care. Swing. Take their lengths away."
Klaasen took that in. The captain was telling him to get out, if that was the price of the boundary, and to leave the rest of the chase at the other end.
He smiled. "Understood, skip. Full license."
He took guard against Varun Chakaravarthy.
He did not take a sighter. First ball, front leg clear, under the ball, six back over the bowler's head.
The ground came up.
Two balls later he went back and pulled a shorter one over deep mid-wicket. Another six.
"Klaasen," Ian Bishop said. "He has walked into this and he is swinging from the first ball."
He kept swinging. In the 17th, a slog-sweep, mistimed, caught at long-on.
25 runs off 9 balls.
The rate had come down. SRH were 138 for 5.
Glenn Phillips walked out. The 360-degree batter.
Deva met him in the middle.
"Same plan, Glenn," Deva said, weight on his Nike bat. "I am the anchor. You do not block. You hit. Break them."
Phillips tapped his bat.
Against Mitchell Starc he did not get behind the pace. He used the bounce and put a 145 bouncer over third man for six. Next ball he went across and scooped Starc over fine leg for four.
10 runs off 3 balls. Then he went for a third boundary and was caught at deep square leg.
148 for 6.
KKR were taking wickets, and the wickets were not changing the chase. The middle order walked out, hit the boundary, and got out, because the other end was not moving.
Deva's order had taken Shreyas Iyer's lengths away. Bowl to stop the boundary, or bowl for the wicket. They could not do both.
Nitish Kumar Reddy walked out for the last stretch.
The 20th over.
SRH needed 4.
Through all of it, Deva had stayed in. He had given them the strike, rotated, and put the bad ball away with orthodox shots. He had kept the tempo of the chase.
He was on strike. 70.
The bowler ran in. Full, on off stump.
Deva came forward, showed the full face, and drove it through the covers.
Through the infield. To the rope.
The match was over.
He had carried his bat through the collapse and the swinging. 74 not out.
The board showed Qualifier 1.
Sunrisers Hyderabad 170 for 6.
They had won by 4 wickets, with 3 balls left. Over 19.3.
The dugout came onto the field. The final, not Qualifier 2. Deva took the helmet off, a small smile, and shook hands with KKR.
In the box, the panel sat with the card.
"I have seen a lot of chases," Ricky Ponting said. "Tonight he read the pitch. He held it with Williamson. Then he told the middle order to swing, and to get out if they had to, because he was not getting out."
"That is the anchor," Harsha Bhogle said. "He took the wicket off Klaasen and Phillips. He would take the responsibility. They would take the risks. Shreyas Iyer's lengths were gone."
"The Master Architect," Ian Bishop said. "He did not only beat Kolkata Knight Riders. He made them bowl the wrong ball. Sunrisers Hyderabad are in the IPL final."