KKR’s Mitchell Starc goes full blast to deliver when it matters in Qualifier 1

Synopsis: Mitch Starc blew away the SRH’s vaunted top order with pacy swing, leaving them wobbling at 39 for 4 in 5 overs, a position from which they never quite recovered. Venkatesh Iyer and Shreyas Iyer capitalised on the decent start provided by Sunil Narine to chase down the 160-run target in just 13.4 overs.

Brave Starc and KKR nail it

Sometimes, it pays to be brave. Like KKR were with the new ball. Mitchell Starc and Vaibhav Arora kept the ball full, had the ball swing late, and triggered a stunning collapse in the Powerplay. SRH were 4 down in five dramatic overs, and later once Heinrich Klaasen too fell, it was clear that the writing on the winner’s wall was going to be in Bengali, unless something sensational happened in the chase.

It didn’t and KKR sealed a spot in the final of the IPL 2024. At one point in the game, at the KKR dugout Gautam Gambhir, who said recently that people don’t come to see him smile but win, even allowed his face to crease into what seemed like a smile before he quickly ironed it out.

What a memorable 𝗞𝗻𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 for the men in purple 💜

Unbeaten half-centuries from Venkatesh Iyer 🤝 Shreyas Iyer

The celebrations continue for the final-bound @KKRiders 😎

Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/U9jiBAlyXF#TATAIPL | #KKRvSRH | #Qualifier1 | #TheFinalCall pic.twitter.com/xBFp3Sskqq

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 21, 2024

It was the other man who wore only wry smiles in the first half of an uneventful tournament, Mitch Starc, who did the main damage, picking up three of the first four wickets.

A couple of months before the tournament began, Starc had dismissed talk of him using change of pace in T20s and announced that he was going to stick to his strengths: full, pacy and swingy. The first ball was interesting: well outside the off stump, away from the reach of the left-hander Travis Head.

On air, former Australian opener Matthew Hayden had begun to slip into his hasty verdict that it was a mistake as it showed that Starc wasn’t going to stick to his strengths of attacking the stumps. He needn’t have feared as the next ball was a cannon fired at the stumps. It still wouldn’t have been enough but it also shaped away late — and that combo was venomous enough to do Head in. The moustached opener had shaped into an almighty on-the-up heave but the ball curled away to flatten out the off and the middle stumps.

SRH now needed their other aggressor in Abhishek Sharma to strut around, but he too was done in by the brave decision to keep the ball full. It was Arora, who has the ability to shape the ball either way, with the blow, curving one from the off and middle line. Unsurprisingly, Sharma went for the big aerial off drive but the late movement had the ball slice off the outer half for a simple catch at covers. Two down for nothing, and SRH had begun to wobble.

Mitchell Starc cleaned up Travis Head for a duck. (Express Photo by Nirmal Harindran)

Starc would keel them over with twin blows in the fifth over of the innings, his third straight over with the new ball — a no-brainer of a decision for the captain. Couple of balls in the over, once he realised that Nitish Reddy was planting his front foot out for a free swing, Starc bounced at him to induce a top-edged skier that was pouched by the wicketkeeper. Next ball, the final ball of his spell, he had the left-hander Shahbaz Ahmed tentatively poke at a length ball outside off to drag it on his middle stump. And Starc would point his finger at a team-mate as he rushed to celebrate the wicket.

It was classic Starc, with a high-arm action, crisp release with an upright seam, and the confidence to hit full lengths as he was getting the ball to swing. He has also had past success against Head in domestic cricket, knocking down his off stump at least three times with similar deliveries. Even an in-form Head couldn’t crack the Starc code. The other couple of wickets were far easier in comparison.

Klaasen falls, SRH collapse

The next back-breaking blow came in the 11th over from Varun Chakravarthy. It was a 99.1kmph slider, full and angling into Klaasen who swung it straight into hands of Rinku Singh at deep midwicket. And when Andre Russell, the most animated KKR player on the field – roaring, fist-pumping in celebrations, not only threw himself to his left at point in the 14th over to stop the ball but throw it back quickly to Gurbaaz, the wicketkeeper, SRH’s topscorer Rahul Tripathi was stranded in the middle of the pitch after a misunderstanding with Abdul Samad.

With that run out, SRH was facing the threat of getting bowled out with a few overs to spare but the real captain cool of this tournament Pat Cummins batted sensibly to stretch their stay till the final overs, extending the total past 150.

It was Cummins who tried to infuse some doubts into the KKR minds in the chase by taking out Sunil Narine in the 7th over with a shortish ball that was pulled to deep midwicket fielder. But Venkatesh Iyer counterattacked in the same over, rushing down the track to deposit the ball into the long-off stands and then slogsweeping a six off the spinner Vijayakanth Viyaskanth in the next. And when he heaved Cummins’s off-cutter for another boundary in the next over, one sensed that the fight had evaporated from the arena. It was Ahmedabad that gave Cummins the ODI world cup as Australia’s captain, but now he would have to try his luck in Chennai in the Qualifier 2.

Get latest updates on IPL 2024 from IPL Points Table to Teams, Schedule, Most Runs and Most Wickets along with live score updates for all matches. Also get Sports news and more cricket updates.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.