As it happened - Starc leads the way as KKR crush SRH to march into the IPL final

Shreyas and Venkatesh add an unbroken 97-run third-wicket stand off just 44 balls to smash SRH and confirm KKR's place in the final.

SRH will face the winner of the Eliminator between RR and RCB for another crack at the final.

The report will be up on the site shortly. Thanks for reading.

This is a picture that will remain in our memory for a while. For Rahul Tripathi, the memory will probably never fade. First the picture: Tripathi is sitting on the lower steps of the never-ending tunnel (60-plus steps!) that leads to the dressing room in Ahmedabad. His helmetless head is buried on his left knee, shielded by the folded gloved left hand while the right hand, also gloved, is holding the bat handle firm.

Moments before Tripathi had stopped in his tracks when he should have blindly run to the striker’s end to finish a single after his partner Abdul Samad had steered a wide delivery from Narine towards backward point. Tripathi had stormed out of his crease, only to freeze the moment he saw Russel dive to his wrong side to stop-pick-and-throw the ball to Gurabz in one motion.

Sport is filled with such moments where players have to make decisions in a blink with no time to think. It is good to forget bad moments. That will be Tripathi’s next challenge once he lifts his head.

T Natarajan strikes in his first over to have Gurbaz holing out for 23 off 14 balls and Cummins bounces out Narine for 21 off 16 balls. But the KKR openers had done enough damage in the powerplay, slashing 63 runs off their target of 160.

It's now over to the Iyers - captain Shreyas and Venkatesh - to deal with the middle overs in a middling chase.

Cummins concedes 20 runs in his first over. KKR are off and running in their chase of 160. After having done a good job behind the stumps in the first innings, Gurbaz is easing himself into IPL action in front of the stumps. SRH, btw, have lost both their reviews inside three overs.

It is a question that has been discussed by experts and opposition camps this IPL regularly. Following is the plan Tom Moody told me when I did an appreciation piece on on Narine, the batter, earlier this IPL. Moody shared the strategy adopted by Sunrisers against Narine in 2017 season when the Knight Riders opener showed his destructive prowess as a batter. Moody was Sunrisers’ head coach at the time.

“You have got to try to hold your nerve and try to bowl him out with good balls, particularly with the new ball when it was swinging because when you have someone like Bhuvneshwar Kumar with the new ball, the last thing you want him to do fall into the trap of trying to bowl short to him or bowl multiple change-ups to trying to derail him. Generally, the moving ball, we felt, was always a good response to his approach. But it’s holding your nerve on that right length to nick him off or bowl him; you don’t get him lbw if he is not so much in line.

"The other thing is that is just making sure when you do sort of go that aggressive line, your line is the right line. A lot of people have gone short to him, but have set up the short ball with him still being able to access it with free hands so line of the ball is pretty much off stump or middle stump whereas your line needs to be leg and outside leg stump where you cramping him completely.

"The thing is he shapes up by exposing his right side and looking to access the leg side so he then quite often ends up pretty much with all three stumps showing and his whole body is outside the line of leg stump. So if you are going to short, you don't the traditional line over the stumps, you need to follow his body line. And therefore your change-up becomes a lot more effective: you can then bowl that change of pace, which with anyone is looking to have that type free swing approach - hitting anything that's up is going out the park, your change-ups become lot more relevant and effective.”

At 126 for 9 in 16 overs, SRH were in danger of being bundled out for a sub-140 total, but Cummins' late blows have given their bowlers something to bowl at. But it appears like SRH might not have enough on the board. Starc says that the dew is also setting in at Ahmedabad, which will make life more difficult for SRH's bowlers.

Tripathi showed some attacking enterprise and invention to bring up back-to-back half-centuries, but some brilliance from Russell and a mix-up resulted in him being run-out for 55 off 35 balls.

SRH try to arrest the collapse by bringing in a batter - Sanvir Singh - as their Impact Player at No.8, but he is bowled through the gate for a duck by Narine to hasten their collapse. The double-strike from KKR even has Shah Rukh Khan on his feet.

SRH are 123 for 7 in 14 overs. Can Cummins and Samad somehow repair SRH's innings?

This is a soooolid crowd even though the home team isn't playing. That wasn't the case in the World Cup which clearly suggests that the fans prefer the IPL over international cricket. (Because the prices can't really be that different; chances are the prices of the IPL games are higher). The SRH fans had found their voice and with the boundary count rising and the DJ playing their song, they'd begun dancing in the aisles. When Varun Chakravarthy began his over with a no-ball and the siren went off, their roars nearly drowned it.

They went through the same routine when they saw Heinrich Klaasen hit the ball in the air. "Whooooooo" they screamed but as it became clear that the ball would drop inside the boundary and straight into a fielder's hands, the noise stopped. The DJ picked up on the moment and went "Aaa-mi" and that was cue for the KKR fans to make themselves heard. "Kay-Kay-Aarr" they yelled, thrusting both hands up in the air. "Aaa-mi" "Kay-Kay-Arr". This to-and-fro innings with one team on top then the other has been keeping a very good crowd very engaged.

Klaasen had taken Narine for 16 off eight balls, but KKR's other mystery spinner, Varun Chakravarthy, has him holing out with his second legal delivery.

Varun darts it on a length on off, but it's not quite full enough for Klaasen to get underneath it. He can only drag it squarer to deep midwicket, where Rinku moves to his right to take the catch.

Varun has bagged 39 wickets in 27 IPL innings since the start of IPL 2023. No spinner has more wickets than Varun during this period.

SRH are 101 for 5 in 11 overs.

Remember who said that?

Player No. 28 sold for INR 24.75 crore – the highest price paid ever in IPL. That honour went to Starc on December 19 last year when Knight Riders bought him at the player auction after an intense tussle with Gujarat Titans who pulled out of the bid at the 24.25 lakh mark. Venky Mysore, Knight Riders CEO since 2011, was a relieved man but said the franchise was determined to get the Australian speedster back because of his “skillset” and they felt Starc was an important “cog” in the wheel the team needed.

Starc himself, in his first reaction at the price tag, said while there was pressure he also had ample experience in all cricket to deal with the pressure, having last played in the IPL in 2015.

Experience of bowling with the new ball, experience of swinging the match in a single spell, experience of winning the big match, the knockout, the World Cup final. "Swinging the new ball, reversing the old, and trying to smack those wickets,” Starc said in an interview with Star Sports after the auction, as response to what the Knight Riders fans should expect form him.

This is Starc's second over on the night.

After ripping out Head in his opening over, Starc takes down both Nitish Reddy and Shahbaz Ahmed in his third to leave SRH at 39 for 4 in five overs. He could've also dismissed Tripathi in his second over when he speared a yorker into the boot of Tripathi, but KKR decided against a review. Replays indicated that it would've crashed into leg stump.

There is some moisture on the surface and both Starc and Arora are using it to their advantage. SRH end the powerplay at 45 for 4. Only twice in 14 innings have SRH scored fewer runs in the powerplay in IPL 2024.

Where will they go from here?

Head gone in the first over.

Abhishek gone in the second.

SRH are on unfamiliar territory at 13 for 2 inside two overs.

Vaibhav Arora, picked ahead of left-arm fingerspinner Anukul Roy, also strikes in his first over. He darts a full ball outside off. On another day, Abhishek would've crunched it over extra-cover. But on this day, he just stabs it in the air, with Russell timing his leap to perfection at short cover to snag the catch.

KKR throw the first punch in Ahmedabad, with Starc knocking Head over second ball for a duck. We were denied this tasty match-up back in March - which seems ages ago? - because Head didn't start the season for SRH. The battle lasts all of two balls in the first qualifier.

The first delivery was an outswinger, which Head pushed it to extra-cover. The second ball threatened to angle in, but swung and seamed away late to breach the defences of Head. Starc puts his hand up and wheels away in celebration. Shreyas Iyer has a big smile on his face.

Sampath Bandarupalli: This is the fifth time Mitchell Starc has dismissed Travis Head across all formats. Four of those were duck including three first-ballers

The first ball to Tripathi is a sharp inswinger, but he keeps it out, thanks to an inside edge. This is an all-action first over from Starc.

Cummins wins the toss and chooses to bat on what he thinks will be a "high-scoring pitch". Okay, black soil or red soil? It's a mix of both, according to Shreyas Iyer. The KKR captain says he was looking to bowl first anyway. SRH retain Vijayakanth Viyaskanth, the young leggie from Jaffna, in their XI while KKR bring in Rahmanullah Gurbaz for Phil Salt, who has left the IPL. This will be Gurbaz's first outing this season.

Here's Al Muthu from Ahmedabad: "I'm supposed to be watching people train but I can't because Dre Russ' kicks. One is bright orange that could prolly be seen from the moon, the other is disappointingly sober. He's been banging on pace balls into the wicket while Mitchell Starc is bowling Mitchell Starc lengths. There's a pretty good crowd in as well and the DJ is keeping them occupied. Looks like the KKR fans outnumber the SRH fans."

KKR XI: 1 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Venkatesh Iyer, 4 Shreyas Iyer(capt), 5 Rinku Singh, 6 Andre Russell, 7 Ramandeep Singh, 8 Mitch Starc, 9 Vaibhav Arora, 10 Harshit Rana, 11 Varun Chakaravarthy

Impact Subs bench: Anukul Roy, Manish Pandey, Nitish Rana, KS Bharat, Sherfane Rutherford

SRH XI: 1 Travis Head, 2 Abhishek Sharma, 3 Rahul Tripathi, 4 Nitish Kumar Reddy, 5 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 6 Shahbaz Ahmed, 7 Abdul Samad, 8 Pat Cummins (capt), 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Vijayakanth Viyaskanth, 11 T Natarajan

Impact Subs bench: Jaydev Unadkat, Washington Sundar, Umran Malik, Glenn Phillips, Sanvir Singh