The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) not only gained entry into the playoffs with their eighth IPL 2024 win at Mumbai Indians’ (MI) stronghold Wankhede Stadium on Friday, but they also addressed the one weakness in their lineup so far, fast bowler Mitchell Starc.
After scoring a below-average 169 runs, the Australian opener, for whom KKR shelled out a whopping Rs 24.75 crore at the IPL auction, finally lived up to his price tag with a match-winning spell of 4/33 in Kolkata’s 24-run victory.
KKR Team Come Back
The Mumbai Indians’ run chase collapsed under Starc’s spell, 145 all out in 18.5 overs. At the Wankhede Stadium, it’s KKR’s first victory in twelve years.
With only seven wickets in eight matches prior to Friday, Starc’s inconsistent consistency was one of the main issues KKR intended to address before the tournament’s knockout round.
“With Mitchell Starc’s comeback to form, KCR seems to be a ‘khatarnak’ (dangerous) squad. Mitchell Starc’s bowling was their lone weak point in terms of rapid bowling. Irfan Pathan, a former Indian pacer, provided an analysis on Tim David’s bowling technique in a video that was uploaded to ‘X’ by a user.
For KKR, Venkatesh Iyer (70 off 52 balls) was the standout batsman. He and Manish Pandey (42 off 31 balls) shared a vital partnership of 83 runs after MI had the visitors at 57/5 in only the seventh over.
Irfan also questioned some of the choices MI skipper Hardik Pandya had made up to that point on the pitch. Although MI seemed like a great squad on paper, they were poorly managed. Irfan said, “The concerns expressed against Hardik Pandya’s leadership were very valid.
“There was no need to give Naman Dhir three consecutive overs after KKR had taken five wickets for only 57 runs. Your sixth bowler delivered three overs when you ought to have been using your main bowlers. This made it possible for Venkatesh Iyer and Manish Pandey to form a joint venture.Pathan continued, “KKR made 170 when you could have bowled them out for 150, and that ended up being the difference.”
With seven victories in ten games, the victory moved KKR up to the second spot on the points table, while MI continued to linger in ninth place among the ten teams.
KKR won the Indian Premier League twice, in 2012 and 2014, both times with Gautam Gambhir as their captain. Currently serving as the Kolkata franchise’s mentor is Gambhir.
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