Even as the 17th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) gets underway on March 22, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will start their campaign on the next day at their home ground. The team has assembled together for quite some time now with key players joining recently. The management organised a couple of intra-squad practice matches and the recent one was played on Tuesday (March 19) with the likes of Mitchell Starc, Andre Russell among others taking part.
All eyes were on the most expensive player of IPL history, Starc who was picked by KKR for INR 24.75 crore at the auction in December 2023. The left-arm pacer also picked up a wicket in the warm-up game but ended up conceding 42 runs in his four overs. Moreover, finisher Rinku Singh smacked him for a massive six in the final over of the innings which was the highlight of the evening as well.
Starc came steaming in to bowl the last over of the innings but missed his mark. It turned out to be a full toss and Rinku didn't make any mistake as he deposited the ball over the mid-wicket boundary for a six. Rinku finished the innings with an unbeaten 31 off just 15 balls as Starc also patted him at the back at the end of the innings.
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The practice match was streamed live on social media handles of KKR as opener Phil Salt once again smashed yet another fifty scoring 51 runs off 37 balls. Andre Russell also bowled a couple of overs conceding 15 runs and picking up a wicket while among Indian bowlers Sakib Hussain was the best nailing his yorkers. He returned with figures of 3/31 in his four overs and it seems has impressed the management with his ability.
