West Indies cricket legend Brian Lara was left unbothered with Mitchell Starc’s bad form with the ball in Kolkata Knight Riders’ IPL 2024 opener against Sunrisers Hyderabad on March 23 in Kolkata.
Lara believes Starc is a world-class bowler, and has the experience to bounce back into form, gradually into the tournament. Starc was under immense scrutiny after conceding big runs during the death overs of the match, which almost cost his side the game.
Since becoming the biggest signing in IPL history with his Rs 24.75 crore move to KKR during the IPL 2024 auction, all eyes were fixed on Starc as he made his KKR debut on Saturday. However, things did not go to plan as the Australian pacer gave away 53 runs in his four overs without grabbing a wicket. While SRH chased the 208-run target set by KKR, Starc conceded 26 runs in the 18th over of the match, leaving his side under pressure with only 13 runs left in the final over.
While reflecting on Starc’s performance from Saturday, Lara highlighted where exactly things went wrong for the pacer.
“I think the strength of Mitchell Starc, we all know around the world, is that ability to use that new ball to get wickets. He didn’t get any wickets with the new ball. And when you play him at the back end, that’s not his forte, his forte is up front. But it’s only the first game, so it’s alright,” Lara told Star Sports.
Despite the heroic batting performance by SRH’s Henrich Klassen with his 63 runs off 29 balls innings, SRH failed to see through the match and lost to KKR by just 4 runs.
The exceptional bowling performance from KKR’s Harshit Rana with his spell of 33/3, along with his 19th over brilliance handed his side their first win of the IPL 2024 season. It was KKR’s crowd-favourite Andre Russell who was awarded the man of the match award for his brilliant all-round performance, which saw him score 63 off 25 balls and take 2 wickets for 25 runs in his 2 overs with the ball.
From sneaking into stadium to IPL captain: Shubman Gill recalls special journey