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At the IPL 2024, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma are accustomed to going off and killing games in the first six overs. However, it was Mitchell Starc who dominated the powerplay in the first qualifier in Ahmedabad that guaranteed the Kolkata Knight Riders’ place in Sunday’s IPL final in Chennai.
Squeezed to extra cover, Starc’s first ball to Head was an outswinger. His second appeared to be angled in, but it turned and sailed away in the last moment, breaking through Head’s defences and leaving his stumps spread.
On a surface that was a mixture of red and black soil with some early wetness, pacer Vaibhav Arora, who was selected ahead of spinner Anukul Roy, had Abhishek Sharma scooping a ball to Andre Russell at short cover for 3.
When Starc caught Shahbaz Ahmed (0) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (9) off consecutive balls in his third over, SRH found themselves in even more danger. Rahul Tripathi speared in a yorker that struck him flat on his boot and would have cannoned into leg stump, giving Starc another opportunity to remove him in his second over. However, KKR chose not to request a review, and SRH proceeded to complete the powerplay on 45 for 4.
With a half-century, Tripathi, who remained at No. 3, salvaged SRH’s innings. He created scoring opportunities by fusing creativity with force. He blasted a bouncer from Harshit Rana for six and smashed Arora over midwicket. With a reverse sweep of Varun for four balls, he achieved his fifty off just 29 balls.
But Tripathi could not hold on as Russell pounced on a miscommunication to dismiss him for 55 off 35 balls. Tripathi was so upset that he spent a considerable amount of time sitting on the steps in Ahmedabad with his head buried in his knee. Tripathi’s shot encapsulated SRH’s evening.
At 126 for 9 in 16 overs, SRH were in danger of being bundled out for a sub-140 total, but Cummins’ 30 off 24 balls dragged them to a more respectable 159.
Gurbaz took over in Phil Salt’s place, who had left the IPL to join the England team, and scored 23 runs off of 14 balls. After hitting four boundaries, T Natarajan had him holing out in his opening over when he attempted a fifth.
After three overs, Cummins removed Narine for 21 off 16 balls, but the damage had already been done by KKR’s openers, who slashed 63 runs off their target during the powerplay.
The Iyers, led by skipper Shreyas and Venkatesh, then turned their chase into a cinch as they put up an unbroken 97 partnership for the third wicket off just 44 balls. Both batters reached half-centuries along the road, but Shreyas came through with a spectacular finish in the 14th over, with a sequence of 6, 4, 6, 6 off Head.