Starc sizzles with 3 for 34 as KKR bundle out SRH for just 159

Mitchell Starc after claiming the wicket of Shahbaz Ahmed of SRH in Ahmedabad yesterday. Pic/AFP

Kolkata Knight Riders's all-round bowling armoury was too hot for Sunrisers Hyderabad to handle, but in-form Rahul Tripathi (55, 35 balls, 7x4, 1x6) ensured KKR had a challenging target (160) in Tuesday's Qualifier 1.

Mitchell Starc (4-0-34-3) triggered the Sunrisers collapse with his second ball in the first over when he bowled Travis Head for his second successive duck. Vaibhav Arora accounted for Abhishek Sharma in the next over. That was like a body blow to SRH aspirations for a quickfire start to their innings like they have been doing in the league phase.

Starc's two wickets in two balls in the fifth over reduced Sunrisers to 39 for 4 and they were looking down the barrel of a gun. Heinrich Klaasen (32, 21 balls, 3x4, 1x6) joined Rahul and the two did some damage control by adding 62 runs in 37 balls. Their partnership ended when Klaasen's attempted six was short of the ropes and Rinku Singh pouched the catch to give Varun Chakravarthy (4-0-26-2) his first wicket.

Rahul's brain-fade moment in the 14th over dealt a deadly blow to Hyderabad. Abdul Samad cut Sunil Narine at backward point where Andre Russell dived to his left and threw the ball to wicketkeeper Rahmanullah Gurbaz. Samad had run full length of the pitch, but Rahul, watching Russell field, froze mid-pitch.

He had half a chance when Gurbaz first tried to throw the ball at the bowler's end, but sensed the situation in time to whip off the bails. A dejected Rahul trudged back to the pavilion, slumped, and sat down on the 80-step stairs to the dressing room.

Rahul was lucky in the third over when Starc had him leg before, but the umpire did not give him out and surprisingly, KKR didn't go for the DRS. Replays showed that the ball was hitting the stumps. Pat Cummins (30, 24 balls, 2x4, 2x6) took SRH to 159.