“After defeating SRH, we attempted to avoid giving Head-Abhishek any width when bowling.” KKR’s Starc

Ahmedabad (Gujarat), May 22, India: The pacer for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Mitchell Starc, was named ‘Player of the Match’ for his match-winning spell. After his team won by eight wickets in the qualifier one match, Starc spoke about how the pacers stopped Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) openers Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma by not giving them any width when bowling.

The Main Event Once again, Starc turned on the style, taking three wickets to demolish SRH’s top order. Venkatesh Iyer and captain Shreyas Iyer both contributed half centuries, making a joke out of a 160-run chase, and KKR’s eight-wicket victory at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Tuesday guaranteed them a position in the finals.

In the post-match press conference after the game, Starc said, “We are aware of the significance of the powerplay. These two teams (SRH and KCR) controlled the powerplay with the bat. In order to go into their middle order, we had to take early wickets. Head and Abhishek prefer breadth and freedom of movement in their play, which has been evident throughout the competition. We didn’t give them any breadth; we simply attempted to swing the ball. Try the hard length and bowl stump to stump. The bowling department was excellent overall, and the spinners were quite successful. I suppose I was fortunate to get Head’s wicket, since it’s not normally the case to see him return so quickly. Recently, we have begun playing against one another.”

Young Indian pacers Harshit Rana and Vaibhav Arora, who have claimed 17 and 10 wickets in the competition, respectively, were also commended by him.

“Arora and Harshit are impressive to see and possess ability and skill. Seeing how hard they train is encouraging. This year, Harshit has been amazing. We have a really strong bowling assault; it’s difficult to pick just a single player. It’s encouraging to watch as an older, foreign player. They will undoubtedly take a lot of wickets for India and in the IPL, he said.

Sunrisers Hyderabad decided to bat first as the game started. Following an amazing Mitchell Starc powerplay session that reduced SRH to 39/4, a 62-run partnership between Heinrich Klaasen (32 in 21 balls, three fours, and a six) and Rahul Tripathi (55 in 35 balls) enabled SRH to reach the 100-run milestone. However, the Sunrisers continued to get wickets as long as their bowlers could keep KKR under pressure. Mitchell Starc, the captain, made a late comeback, scoring 30 runs in 24 balls with two fours and two sixes to lead SRH to a respectable 159 in 19.3 overs.

With a stint of 3/34 in four overs, Starc was KKR’s best bowler and once again proved to be a force at important times. In four overs, Varun Chakravarthy, too, scored 2/26. Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, and Vaibhav Arora each claimed a wicket.

A 44-run partnership between openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz (23 in 14 balls, with two fours and two sixes) and Sunil Narine (21 in 16 balls, with four boundaries) set up KKR for a comfortable lead in the run-chase of 160 runs. SRH’s bowling and run-chase were humiliated by attacking half-centuries from captain Shreyas Iyer (58* in 24 balls, with five fours and four sixes) and Venkatesh Iyer (51* in 28 balls, with five fours and four sixes), who won the match by eight wickets with 38 balls remaining.

With this victory, KKR has secured a straight berth in the championship game. Meanwhile, SRH will play in Qualifier 2 against the winner of Wednesday’s elimination game between the Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) for one more chance to win the title.