IPL’s Rs 24.75 crore buy Mitchell Starc takes real hit from Rinku Singh, Manish Pandey at KKR practice; pacemaker reacts | Cricket | Top Vip News

Mitchell Starc, the most expensive player in IPL history, played his first team practice match for Kolkata Knight Riders on Tuesday night and returned figures of 1/40 in four overs against his own teammates. Starc, who will be playing his first Indian Premier League in eight years, had his moments but Rinku Singh and Manish Pandey clashed mainly in the death overs.

Representing Team Purple against Team Gold, Starc started off with a bang as he conceded just one run and took one wicket, dismissing Rahmanullah Gurbaz LBW. But from the second onwards, even though Starc did his best to trouble the batsmen with pace, he came up a little short. Angkrish Raghuvanshi, the opener, struggled early and was hit a couple of times before finding his rhythm.

The 22-year-old knocked down the wicket and played a shot that gave him a boundary and followed it with a wonderful drive down the ground to make it four in a row. In between, Starc also took a deep catch to help Andre Russell dismiss Venkatesh Iyer. The left-arm Australian quick spent most of the remaining 14 overs fielding, during which he saved a couple of boundaries.

With three overs to go, Starc returned with ball in hand, but this time the job at hand was even tougher with Rinku Singh and Manish Pandey in the crease. With Team Gold at 148/8, Rinku welcomed Starc with a cheeky late cut for four, followed by a couple of runs. On the next ball, Rinku tried to clear the boundary again by playing a ramp shot, but the ball missed the third-man fielder. Pandey took a single off the penultimate ball of the over to put Rinku on strike again. He followed a wide before Rinku flicked the ball wide, making it 10 runs.

Death surpasses

Starc’s fourth over was also the end of the innings, and it began with Rinku bowling a low full delivery and sending it over deep square leg for a six. Rinku tried to bowl the next ball the other way, but all he could manage was a single. With Pandey on strike, Starc bowled a wide full delivery and the batsman put his bat on the ball at the last moment and earned a boundary. Starc then rounded the wicket but there was no respite as Pandey clipped the ball over the keeper’s head to make it two for two. With the hammering becoming real, Starc showed a brave smile as he walked back to his target, hoping to make amends.

He did so to an extent by allowing a single off the next ball, but Rinku followed up Starc’s final delivery of the over and the innings with a thoroughbred drive through the offside for four. 20 runs came up, including a six and three boundaries to cap Starc’s first bowling outing of any kind in the IPL since 2015.