Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) roared back to the IPL finals with a crushing 8 wicket victory over the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in qualifier 1 of IPL playoffs 2024 and the victory was set up by none other than Mitchell Starc.

Mitchell Starc did the damage early on as he dismissed SRH's explosive opener Travis Head for a duck and set the match up for KKR with his 3/34 in four overs. 

Starc was elected as the player of the match and in his post match interview, the two time World Cup winner with Australia gave a much needed insight on how to get his Aussie teammate Travis Head out early on in the innings. 

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Mitchell Starc gives insight on how to neutralise Travis Head

Travis Head has been bullying opposition bowling lineups at the top of the order in IPL 2024 but in the qualifier 1 against KKR, he was sent packing back into the pavilion for a duck by Mitchell Starc's fantastic delivery which cleaned up his stumps.

Mitchell Starc in a much needed insight confirmed that he tried to swing the ball away from Travis Head's hitting arc and bowl stump to stump. 

“The way (Travis) Head and Abhishek (Sharma) have been playing thoughout the tournament, they like width and free their arms. We just tried to swing the ball and not provide them width. Bowl stump to stump and tried the hard length”, said Mitchell Starc.

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The plan worked wonders by KKR as Hyderabad's terrorising opening pair failed to make an impact on the game and as a result SRH were under pressure since the beginning. Starc however said that maybe he got lucky with Travis Head's wicket, “ Got lucky I guess (on taking Head's wicket), was nice to see his back early, not always the case. We have been playing against each other in recent times”.  

While Travis Head's game looked invincible over the last year a weekness in his game might be unravelling as in SRH's last league game against Punjab Kings, Travis Head got out in similar fashion to Arshdeep Singh. 

Kolkata Knight Riders will have a four day gap ahead of the IPL final and they will face either one of Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bengaluru or Sunrisers Hyderabad in the showpiece clash on Sunday May 26th at the Chepauk Stadium.