IPL Final Match KKR vs SRH: Big-match player Starc the wrecking ball in KKR’s demolition job

KKR's Costly Mitchell Starc Gamble (File)

When a franchise pays an unprecedented 24.75 crores for your services at the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction, the expectation is that you hit the ground running. Unfortunately for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Mitchell Starc did anything but. In the first two matches of IPL 2024, he was carted for 100 runs in eight overs. That was all it needed for several experts and millions of fans to question the wisdom of such a massive investment.

But those who decided on such a huge outlay for one player were hardly fools. When Venky Mysore took over as KKR’s CEO in September 2010, they were the league’s laughing stock, having finished sixth, eighth and sixth in the first three seasons, while exploring bizarre options like multiple captains (2009).

One of Mysore’s first moves was to bring Gautam Gambhir to Kolkata as captain. In his seven seasons there, KKR won the title twice (2012 and 2014) and reached the play-offs on three other occasions. Before this season, Mysore brought Gambhir back again, this time as team mentor. KKR’s bowling coach is Bharat Arun, whose behind-the-scenes nous played such a big part in India becoming the world’s best Test side half a decade ago.

Read: KKR vs SRH Live Updates

When they pushed for Starc, they knew they’d be getting a performer with a taste for the big occasion. Look at the two 50-over World Cups that Australia have won in the past decade. In 2015, he castled the in-form and potentially devastating Brendon McCullum with the fifth ball of the final. In Ahmedabad last November, he gave Australia the first breakthrough by having Shubman Gill caught at mid-on in his third over.

And as the IPL has wound towards its conclusion in searing summer heat, Starc’s bowling has come to a boil at just the right time. After the discordant notes in his first two matches, Starc took 10 wickets in his last five outings. That included 3-34 and 2-14 in Qualifier 1 and the final, both against the hapless Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).

Starc may now be 34, but he has retained his ability to swing the ball at pace. Abhishek Sharma, one of the most destructive batters in the competition, was clueless about one that pitched on middle stump and hit the off pole. Rahul Tripathi, a right-hand batter, was undone by movement away, with the miscued hoick going nowhere. With Travis Head, SRH’s other gun batter, having fallen first ball to Vaibhav Arora, the final result was almost a foregone conclusion inside five overs.

Of course, this demolition job wasn’t about Starc alone. Arun’s imprint was visible in how impressively Arora and Harshit Rana bowled, and there were three wickets for Andre Russell, the format’s premier all-rounder who has found a new lease of life with Gambhir back in the camp. Sunil Narine, the other West Indies veteran whom Gambhir has coaxed to epic feats this season, finished with miserly figures of 1-16.

It's hard to talk of value for money when a sum of nearly 25 crores is involved. But what Starc showed at Chepauk was that there is simply no substitute for big-stage experience. That’s priceless.

In exclusive arrangement with RevSportz