Sunrisers Hyderabad’s (SRH) in-form Travis Head’s worst nightmare came true in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Qualifier 1. Before the clash, an old video of Head getting bowled by Mitchell Starc’s swinging full length deliveries were making rounds on the internet. At Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, Starc and Head must have experienced Deja Vu as the left-arm pacer got rid of him with a fiery delivery in the first ball.
SRH skipper Pat Cummins won the toss and opted to bat first. Shreyas Iyer was handed the new ball to Starc. On the first delivery, Head seemed nervous and wanted to get off the strike. In doing so, Abhishek Sharma almost got run out but Shreyas missed the stumps. On the next ball, Starc bowled a swinging full delivery to get through bat and pad. The opener got bowled as the ball smashed the middle and off stump.
Earlier Head had a similar fate against Starc in Australia's domestic competitions Marsh Cup (One-Day format) and Sheffield Shield (First-Class tournament).
Earlier in the season, Head was dismissed with the new ball by another left-arm pacer. Punjab Kings' (PBKS) Arshdeep Singh got the left-handed batter's wicket in SRH's last league game on May 19.
Starc's double strike
As Starc departed, his opening partner Abhishek departed as well. In the second over of the innings, he went for a shot over covers against Vaibhav Arora but Andre Russell took his catch. Starc was given third over as well. He was hit for a boundary by Nitish Reddy. But the Australian pacer came back well. He bowled a short ball to Reddy and didn't give him any room. He went for the pull shot but got a top-edge which was caught by wicketkeeper Rahmanullah Gurbaz. Shahbaz Ahmed got a promotion up the order and got bowled a length delivery. After five overs, SRH were 39/4.
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