Hyderabad win toss, opt to bat against Kolkata in IPL final

Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Pat Cummins won the toss and elected to bat first against Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League final on Sunday.

Former champions Hyderabad won a virtual semi-final against Rajasthan Royals two days ago at the same venue in Chennai to make their third IPL final.

Hyderabad's only title in the world's most lucrative T20 tournament came in 2016 under another Australian, David Warner.

Cummins, for whom Hyderabad paid $2.5 million in the auction, eyes a third major crown inside a year after he led Australia to both the world Test championship title and an ODI World Cup triumph in 2023.

Standing in Cummins' way will be fellow Australian and Kolkata quick Mitchell Starc, who rattled Hyderabad's top order in the first play-off.

Left-arm quick Starc became the most expensive player in IPL history when Kolkata paid $2.98 million for his services, overtaking Cummins in the same auction in December.

Two-time winners Kolkata, led by Shreyas Iyer, have been the team to beat after they topped the league phase and thrashed Hyderabad in the first qualifier to make their fourth final.

Former India batsman Gautam Gambhir led Kolkata to title victories in 2012 and 2014, and is now the team mentor.

Kolkata Knight Riders: R. Gurbaz (wk), S. Narine, V. Iyer, S. Iyer (capt), R. Singh, A. Russell, R. Singh, M. Starc, V. Arora, H. Rana, V. Chakaravarthy

Impact Subs: A. Roy, M. Pandey, N. Rana, KS Bharat, S. Rutherford

Sunrisers Hyderabad: T. Head, A. Sharma, R. Tripathi, A. Markram, N. Reddy, H. Klaasen (wk), S. Ahmed, P. Cummins (capt), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, J. Unadkat, T. Natarajan

Impact Subs: U. Malik, G. Phillips, M. Markande, A. Samad, W. Sundar

Umpires: Jayaraman Madanagopal (IND), Nitin Menon (IND)

TV Umpire: Michael Gough (ENG)

Match Referee: Manu Nayar (IND)