The IPL 2024 final in Chennai saw Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) facing off against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). SRH captain Pat Cummins won the toss and elected to bat first. Openers Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, known for their consistent scoring this season, started for SRH. However, just like in the first Qualifier against the same team, KKR pacer Mitchell Starc struck early. Interestingly, Head didn't face the first ball. It was Abhishek Sharma who took the strike and was unfortunately dismissed by Starc in the fifth delivery of the very first over. This early wicket has potentially given KKR a significant advantage in the crucial final.
Mitchell Starc's ripper gives marching orders to Abhishek Sharma
Mitchell Starc's delivery was a perfect example of good length bowling. The ball swung in the air, maintaining its movement even after bouncing. It just nicked Sharma's bat and dislodged the off-stump, resulting in a clean dismissal. This was Starc's fourth powerplay wicket in the last two KKR matches. Interestingly, his performance has been a tale of two halves this season. Initially, he struggled significantly, conceding a lot of runs. However, Starc has turned things around in the latter half of the tournament, taking over 10 wickets just within the powerplay overs.
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This is how Starc rattled Abhishek's stumps, watch here
There was a lot of anticipation surrounding the Starc versus Head matchup heading into the final. However, Starc managed to dismiss the in-form Indian batter early, dealing a major blow to SRH's innings. Interestingly, this wasn't the first time Starc had dismissed Head cheaply in recent matches. In the previous game as well, Vaibhav Arora had dismissed Head for a duck, putting SRH on the back foot early on.
KKR, on the other hand, showed full faith in Starc, retaining the same playing XI for the final. Their trust paid off as Starc picked up two wickets within the powerplay yet again. This was a crucial advantage, especially considering KKR captain Shreyas Iyer had lost the toss and wanted to bowl first. Starc's early wickets put KKR in a commanding position in the high-pressure final.
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Notably, since their loss against Punjab Kings, the KKR bowlers have been exceptional, restricting their opponents to under 160 whenever they've batted first. Starc himself has reached a total of 17 wickets for the season, including a stellar performance in the final where he ended with figures of 2/14 in just 3 overs bowled within the powerplay. While Pat Cummins, the Sunrisers Hyderabad captain, did win the toss and opted to bat first, Starc's early blows effectively turned the tide in KKR's favor.
SRH ended up posting a lowly total of 113 runs.
Sunrisers Hyderabad's Playing XI
Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nitish Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen(wk), Shahbaz Ahmed, Pat Cummins(c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, T Natarajan
Sunrisers Hyderabad Impact Subs: Umran Malik, Glenn Phillips, Mayank Markande, Abdul Samad, Washington Sundar
Kolkata Knight Riders' Playing XI
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy
Kolkata Knight Riders Impact Subs: Anukul Roy, Manish Pandey, Nitish Rana, KS Bharat, Sherfaine Rutherford
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