An inauspicious start for the Australian pacer Mitchell Starc for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on IPL return was the biggest talking point as the home team survived a scare against the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in their opening game of the 2024 edition at Eden Gardens on Saturday, March 23. Starc, who last played in the IPL in 2015, was paid a massive sum of INR 24.75 crore by the Knight Riders in the 2024 auction but Heinrich Klaasen ruined his comeback smashing three sixes off him and Shahbaz Ahmed capped it off with one more off the last ball, in the penultimate over of the innings.
Starc went wicketless on his KKR debut. He gave away 27 runs in his first three overs. Even though he went for runs, he bowled decently enough before Klaasen ran into him when it mattered the most for SRH as the Orange Army needed 39 off the last couple of overs. Thankfully for KKR, Harshit Rana won it for them dismissing both Klaasen and Shahbaz in the final over to defend 13 off the over. However, like Klaasen, the fans too were harsh on him in his first outing in IPL in nine years.
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However, as the tournament goes on, Starc is expected to get better and gain confidence in his role for the franchise and get accustomed to the grounds and surfaces across India because 650-plus wickets in international cricket is not a joke.
While Harshit Rana starred with the ball, it was the trio of Phil Salt, Ramandeep Singh and Andre Russell who did the job with the bat for KKR. While Salt had to curb his natural instincts after KKR lost a few wickets in succession, Ramandeep played a freeing cameo which allowed Russell to hit from the first ball and eventually get to a winning score of 208.
