CHENNAI: A professional display by Kolkata Knight Riders enabled the Shreyas Iyer-led side to restrict Sunrisers Hyderabad to 113 in 18.3 overs in the final of the IPL played at the MA Chidambaram stadium here on Sunday.
Mitchell Starc bowled with a lot of fire and zest to give KKR the initial breakthroughs. Later, Harshit Rana (2/24) and Andre Russell (3/19) capitalized on the Australian’s efforts to inflict further wounds upon the SRH batters. The SRH top order paid the price for poor shot selection. They forgot that even in T20, there is a method in madness.
Not for nothing is Starc rated as one of the best left-arm fast bowlers in the world. Before the start of the league, Australian pace legend Glenn McGrath, had full faith in Starc. He believed the spearhead would deliver. Starc accounted for the in-form Abhishek Sharma and Rahul Tripathi. His strikes created a ripple effect as the SRH batters got bogged down and threw away their wickets one after another.
‘’Starc is the best left-arm fast bowler in the business. The price at which he was picked in the auction does not matter. He has played high pressure games and on the big stage he will certainly deliver. You need experience playing on the big stage and Starc knows the process,’’ McGrath had opined to this daily before the IPL began.
True to the ‘Pigeon’s words, Starc’s fiery opening burst (2-14) dented all hopes of a tall chase. Cummins won the toss but they had a disastrous start as Sharma was castled by a peach of a delivery from Starc. The Australian speedster tested Abhiskek on the off peg with subtle swing. Off the fifth ball of the first over, Starc changed lines and angled in the ball with good pace and Abhishek was beaten neck and crop.
Vaibhav Arora drew confidence from Starc’s brilliant over and chose to attack the SRH batters. He was able to move the ball and get swing. An away swinger after pitching on leg caught Travis Head’s outside edge with Rahmanullah Gurbaz doing the rest. Now. a lot depended upon Tripathi and Aiden Markram to do the rescue act. SRH banked a lot on Tripathi who gave a good account of himself in the Qualifier 2 game against Rajasthan.
But both Tripathi and Markram could not force the pace. One wonders if some surface level residual moisture yielded some swing for the bowlers (it has rained over the past few days in Chennai).
Tripathi, who likes to attack from the word go, could not do so as Starc was bowing tight lines. In order to one up over the Aussie, Tripathi went for an acrobatic stroke only to top edge and sky the ball to Ramandeep Singh at short mid wicket. Nitish Reddy, who played a few match winning knocks in the league phase, failed in the big stage due to Inexperience.
Kolkata captain Shreyas Iyer also deserves some plaudits as he made some gun bowling changes. One of his best decisions though, was to keep Starc on for a third over in the powerplay. With the cream of the SRH top order back in the hut, a lot depended upon the last recognized pair of Markram and Heinrich Klaasen. But that was not to be.
Andre Russell’s short of length deliveries had a bit of extra bounce, and one of those deliveries got him the wicket of Markram. The South African, who has had a disappointing campaign, couldn’t clear the man at long on. Klaasen wanted to get a partnership or two going but there was no support at the other end. Running out of partners, he too perished as he was cleaned up by Rana. With that SRH hopes of posting a challenging total vanished.
Needing a miracle, Hyderabad started positively as they got the wicket of Sunil Narine but Venkatesh Iyer and Gurbaz ensured there would be no other hiccups. Brief scores: SRH 113 in 18.3 ovs (Cummins 24; Starc 2/14, Harshit 2/24, Russell 3/19) lost to KKR 114/2 (Venkatesh 52 n.o, Gurbaz 39).