Leading Online Desk : IPL 2024 KKR vs SRH : Although Kolkata Knight Riders have won the first match of the IPL, bowler Mitchell Starc has raised the anxiety of this team. KKR added Starc to their squad in the IPL 2024 mini-auction by spending Rs 24.75 crore. With this, Starc became the most expensive player not only in IPL 2024 but also in the history of the tournament. A total of 99 bids were placed for them in the auction, with Shah Rukh Khan's KKR winning the last bid. However, the first match of the season turned out to be very disappointing for the fast bowler.
The third match of IPL 2024 was played between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad on Saturday (23rd). KKR won the high scoring match by 4 runs at the Eden Gardens Stadium in Kolkata. In fact, it was a scenario where KKR would single-handedly win this match. But in the 19th over of Sunrisers Hyderabad's innings, there was something that perhaps no one expected. Starc, who became the most expensive player in IPL history, bowled this over, which included four sixes, and the match took a different turn. Starc not only bowled the most expensive over in IPL 2024 but also spent a total of 53 runs in four overs. During this he did not get a single wicket.
Starc bowled the 19th over of the innings. It was the last over of his quota. In the first 3 overs, Starc gave away 12, 10 and 5 runs respectively, but in the last over he spent 26 runs for his half-century. Starc hit 4 sixes in the 19th over.
26 runs in one over from Starc
Actually, Mitchell Starc came in to bowl the 19th over of Sunrisers Hyderabad's innings. This time Hyderabad needed 39 runs to win. It looked like Starc would end the match with a stunning over. But SRH power hitter Henrik Klaasen started the over with a towering six. However, there was no run on the second ball and the third ball was wide. After this African Klaasen completed his half-century by hitting 2 sixes off two consecutive balls. Klaasen took a single off the next ball. Then Shahbaz Ahmed came on strike. He also hit a six on the last ball of the over. In this way, Hyderabad scored 26 runs in one over of Starc.
Such was the match
Hyderabad won the toss and decided to bowl first. In such a situation, Kolkata scored 208 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in 20 overs while batting first. Chasing a huge target of 209 runs, Sunrisers scored 204 runs for 7 wickets. Thus KKR narrowly won the match by just 4 runs.
Seeing the most expensive player in the history of the IPL being washed like this sparked a flood of reactions from fans on social media. Some fans are saying that Starc cheated KKR, while others are taunting that KKR is just wasting money.
