KKR vs SRH: Watch - Mitchell Starc castles Abhishek Sharma with ball of the tournament in IPL 2024 final

KKR pacer Mitchell Starc handed his team a great advantage in the IPL 2024 final against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday. Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad are playing in the IPL 2024 final currently in Chennai.

SRH skipper Pat Cummins won the toss and opted to bat first in the big final. SRH opened with Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma the openers who have been consistently scoring for them this season.

However, like the first Qualifier against SRH, Mitchell Starc took a wicket in his very first over. Interestingly, Travis Head did not take the strike to start the innings. It was the youngster Abhishek Sharma who took the strike and was dismissed in the fifth ball of Starc's first over. The ball before, the youngster survived a close run out chance.

Watch: Mitchell Starc Dismisses Abhishek Sharma In The First Over

AN ABSOLUTE RIPPER! 🤩

As spectacular as it gets from Mitchell Starc ⚡️

He gets the in-form Abhishek Sharma early 🔥

Watch the match LIVE on @JioCinema and @StarSportsIndia 💻📱#TATAIPL | #KKRvSRH | #Final | #TheFinalCall pic.twitter.com/K5w9WIywuR

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 26, 2024

The ball from Mitchell Starc was bowled on the good length area. The ball held the swing and kept swinging after pitching as it just left the bat of Sharma and castled into the off stump.

Also Read: KKR vs SRH: Watch - Mitchell Starc teases Travis Head for not taking strike against him in IPL 2024 final

For Starc it was his fourth wicket inside the powerplay in the last two games for KKR. The Aussie pacer have had an IPL of two halves. He struggled very badly in the first half of the tournament proving to be expensive as well. In the second half of the tournament, Starc now has more than 10 wickets inside just the powerplay.

Starc against Head was the big match-up heading into this contest but Starc dismissed the Indian batter and in the very next match Vaibhav Arora dismissed Head for a duck giving SRH a body blow early in the game.

KKR kept the same XI heading into the game and backed Starc to perform and he picked up two wickets inside the powerplay once again. KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer once again lost the toss but he said that he wanted to bowl and thus the decision worked in his favour.

“We would have bowled, we'll get a fair idea about how the pitch will play. It;s a red soil and we played our last game on a similar surface. We need to stay with the present, stick to the basics and execute all our plans. Every individual is taking responsibility, this is a big game, we've plenty of people who're playing in a final for the first time, nervous, but this is also a good chance. We're going with the same team" said Iyer at the toss.

The start that Starc gave him has now put KKR in a good position in the big final. Interestingly, since losing the match against Punjab Kings, the KKR bowlers have not allowed opponents to score beyond 160 whenever they have batted first. The tally of wickets for Starc is now at 17 as he has once again taken 17 wickets in the season so far. He ended with 2/14 in three overs inside the powerplay. Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Pat Cummins won the toss and opted to bat first in the game against KKR.

“We will bat first. Looks like a good wicket, played on a different wicket the other night. There was no dew on the other night's game, but when it does, it's very damaging. We've had now dew the other night, I don't feel there'll be any today, I want to crack with the bat first." said Cummins at the toss.

Also Read: KKR vs SRH: Sunil Narine on the verge of becoming first cricketer in IPL history to achieve this milestone