Kolkata Knight Riders spending Rs 24.75 crore on Mitchell Starc has been the topic of a raging debate since the commencement of the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL), but on Tuesday (21 May), the Australian pacer justified his worth with a match-winning spell. Against a power-packed Sunrisers Hyderabad batting unit that has tormented bowlers aplenty, Starc recorded figures of 4-0-34-3 to propel KKR into the final.
In only the second delivery of the match, he bowled his fellow countryman Travis Head, before dismissing Nitish Reddy and Shahbaz Ahmed on consecutive deliveries in his third over. Had KKR captain Shreyas Iyer been shrewder with his DRS calls, Starc would have had a fourth scalp in Rahul Tripathi as well.
Speaking on dismissing Travis Head early, which the Indian bowlers could not do at the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup final, Starc admitted that he got lucky.
I got lucky today, I guess. Between me, Trav and Pat, we have played a lot of cricket here. It was nice to see Trav’s back early, it is not always the case. But I am sure that in a couple of nights’ time he will come swinging again.Mitchell Starc
Further elaborating on the importance of giving his team a good start with the ball in powerplay, especially against a team like SRH, he stated:
We know how important the powerplay is. These were the two sides who dominated the powerplay. We needed to pick early wickets and get into their middle-order. The way Trav and Abhishek have been playing, they like width to free their arms. So, we just tried to swing the ball and keep it tight with lines and bowl hard lengths.Mitchell Starc
Besides Starc, KKR’s uncapped Indian pace duo of Harshit Rana and Vaibhav Arora was also on song in the Qualifier 1. The former dismissed Abdul Samad and conceded only 27 runs in his four-over spell, whilst the latter dismissed an in-form Abhishek Sharma in his first over.
Speaking on the Indian pacers in the KKR camp, Starc said:
They are exciting to watch. They are talented, skilful and raw. It's good to see how hard they train. Harshit has been phenomenal. It has been great to see them first-hand and have got a lot of wickets in the IPL, and will for India as well.Mitchell Starc
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