MATCH STORIES
Follow UsDread it. Run from it. Knockout Mitchell Starc still arrives.
At this point, it feels like knockout Mitchell Starc is more inevitable than destiny itself.
Four nights ago, in Qualifier 1 in Ahmedabad, Starc, after a somewhat middling tournament, pretty much single-handedly bowled Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) into the final.
One soaring delivery from the left-arm of Starc was all that was needed to completely crush the spirit of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).
Throughout the entirety of IPL 2024, Travis Head had been terrorizing opposition sides but, here, on the second ball of that game, he saw his stumps go for a walk.
This dismissal set the tone for the rest of the game, much like how Brendon McCullum’s wicket set the tone for the final between Australia and New Zealand at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 2015. Like the Kiwis nine years ago, SRH never recovered post the devastating blow from Starc.
Bowling one spell like what Starc did in Qualifier 1 is crazy enough, but the madman woke up on Sunday (May 26), saw that there was a big game in front of him and said, ‘I’ll do it again’.
At Chepauk, the Starc factor came into effect even before a single ball had been bowled. Seeing what had happened in Ahmedabad, SRH decided to start the innings with Abhishek Sharma instead of Head. It was only the second time in the past eight knocks that Head hadn’t taken strike.
So to Abhishek, Starc began with a hat-trick of outswingers: all very good balls but none unplayable. Abhishek could easily have nicked the first two balls — which were full and beat his bat — but the batter, to his own relief, ended up playing and missing it.
Chaos unfolded on the fourth ball of the over and Abhishek *should* have been dismissed but the left-hander ended up getting a massive reprieve. Head and Abhishek took off for a non-existent two and Abhishek should have walked back to the pavilion, but a combination of a poor throw (from Ramandeep Singh) and sloppy glovework (from Rahmanullah Gurbaz) gave the left-hander a reprieve.
In a way, Starc indirectly created the opportunity because the only reason the two SRH openers went for a non-existent double there was to protect Head from his nemesis.
For about five seconds, the ‘missed’ run-out was being talked about as a potential moment that might come back to haunt KKR.
Only five seconds, though. Because before even the replay could be shown multiple times, Starc did his thing.
So, remember the ball he bowled to Head in Qualifier 1? That created absolute pandemonium at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad? This was about ten times sexier than that. Twenty times more unplayable. No exaggeration.
Starc steamed in to bowl as smoothly as he has all season and released the ball from his hands, angling the brand new kookaburra towards the leg-stump of the left-handed Abhishek. Understandably, with survival being his only intention, Abhishek played the line of the ball and offered a straight bat, hoping to dead bat it for a dot.
The ploy would probably have worked against a normal bowler. It would maybe even have worked against non-knockout Starc.
But against knockout Starc? In a final? Pfffft.
In what was a delivery straight out of 2015, Starc managed to beat the batter for both pace and swing. Abhishek played the line of the ball but it swung late, beat his outside edge and kissed the bails to knock it over.
Abhishek looked both defeated and stunned, and understandably so. You don’t expect to receive deliveries like these in T20 cricket, let alone in a final at Chepauk.
But hey, that’s knockout Mitchell Starc for you.
In 11 group games in IPL 2024, he’d taken 2+ wickets in the powerplay only once. He’d, in fact, bowled three overs in the powerplay on two occasions only.
Come the knockouts, Starc has bowled three overs in the powerplay 2/2 times and has registered combined figures of 5/36 in 6 overs.
Head’s finals juju might have ended today, but Starc’s knockout juju seems immortal. Knockout Starc might just be the greatest player in cricket history.
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