He was brilliant from ball one: Watson hails KKR pacer Starc's performance against SRH

Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], May 22 (ANI): Previous Australia cricketer Shane Watson showered acclaim on Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) pacer Mitchell Starc and said he was 'splendid from ball one' against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Qualifier 1 match of the Indian Chief Association (IPL) 2024.

Starc showed a dynamite execution at the Narendra Modi Arena on Tuesday, the Aussie bowler got three wickets in his four-over spell and gave only 34 runs.

Talking at the JioCinema, Watson said Starc was at his best against the Hyderabad-based establishment. The previous cricketer added the game changed for the pacer after he eliminated Starc in the second chunk of the principal inning.

"He was splendid from ball one. It's conspicuous with Mitchell Starc that assuming he gets the initial not many balls spot on, the length, the line, and the swing, then, at that point, you know he's large and in charge. All through this Goodbye IPL, he's been winning big or losing big, perhaps more miss than hit. Be that as it may, this evening, he was at his absolute best. You would think the ten days from the past game to this one gave him an opportunity to genuinely and intellectually spruce up, and he set it all up. He got Travis Head out in the subsequent ball and things went very well from that point for Mitchell Starc and KKR," Watson said.

Recapping the match, Sunrisers Hyderabad chose for bat first. In the wake of being diminished to 39/4 following an unbelievable powerplay spell by Mitchell Starc, a 62-run stand between Rahul Tripathi (55 out of 35 balls, with seven fours and a six) and Heinrich Klaasen (32 out of 21 balls, with three fours and a six) assisted SRH with crossing the 100-run mark. Be that as it may, wickets continued to succumb to Sunrisers as bowlers had the option to keep up with tension on KKR. A late appearance from captain Mitchell Starc (30 out of 24 balls, with two fours and two sixes) took SRH to a good 159 in 19.3 overs.

Once more starc was the pick of the bowlers for KKR, with a spell of 3/34 out of four overs, having an effect during the enormous stages. Varun Chakravarthy likewise got 2/26 of every four overs. Vaibhav Arora, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell and Vaibhav Arora got a wicket each.

In the run-pursue of 160 runs, a 44-run organization between openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz (23 of every 14 balls, with two fours and two sixes) and Sunil Narine (21 out of 16 balls, with four limits) gave a fine stage to KKR. Going after half-hundreds of years from captain Shreyas Iyer (58* in 24 balls, with five fours and four sixes) and Venkatesh Iyer (51* in 28 balls, with five fours and four sixes) made a joke of SRH's bowling and run-pursue, dominating the match by eight wickets with 38 balls to go.

With this success, KKR has procured an immediate spot in the last, while SRH has another shot at the title conflict and will play in Qualifier two against the victor of the eliminator match between Illustrious Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) occurring on Wednesday.