Mitchell Starc – 33/4 vs MI, 2024
Mitchell Starc was bought by KKR for a record price of 24.75 cr in the auction. But he didn’t prove his worth in the initial matches as he was getting bashed in all the matches. But he performed in the playoffs when it mattered the most by picking the wickets of Travis Head in Qualifier 1 and Abhishek Sharma in the finals. But before that, there was one more match in the league stage where he unveiled his clutch performance.
This match was against MI at Wankhede. It’s been 12 years since KKR had won a match against them at Wankhede. KKR batted first and collapsed drastically to 57/5. Then Venkatesh Iyer and Manish Pandey built a partnership and helped the knight riders to reach a competitive total. KKR were bowled out for 169 runs.
Chasing a target of 170, Starc started the account by dismissing Ishan Kishan. Then the other Star bowlers Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy, and Andre Russell took care of the middle order. Tim David was still hanging there in the middle. Mitchell Starc came to bowl the penultimate over and took the important wicket of Tim David. He also removed Chawla and Coetzee in the same over and sealed the match for KKR. MI bowled out for 145 runs. KKR won by 24 runs.
Sunil Narine – 5/19 vs PBKS, 2012
Sunil Narine was picked by KKR in 2012 and he was one of the main reasons for them to lift the trophy. In a league match against Punjab at Eden Gardens, KKR found that they have bought a gem at the auction and he is going to our long term investment. PBKS batted first and scored just 134 runs in 20 overs. Courtesy goes to the mystery bowler who gave just 19 runs and took 5 wickets in his 4 overs.
Sunil Narine took the important wickets of the dangerous Adam Gilchrist and Shaun Marsh as well. Even though KKR choked in batting and lost the match by 2 runs, this is the match where the world saw the magic of Sunil Narine for the first time.
 Andre Russell – 4/5 vs GT, 2022
Gujarat Titans (GT) batted first and were in a decent position of 151/5 in 19 overs with Abhinav Manohar and Rahul Tewatia in the middle. Varun Chakravarthy had one left but still Andre Russell who didn’t bowl in the match was handed over the last over as Shivam Mavi and Tim Southee did well in the previous overs.
Russell didn’t disappoint as well. He took the wickets of Abhinav Manohar and Lockie Ferguson in the first two balls and Rahul Tewatia and Yash Dayal in the last two balls. In between that Tewatia scored a boundary and a total of 5 runs were scored in the over and Russell took 4 wickets. KKR choked again in the batting and lost this match too but this spell shows why KKR management is trusting Russell despite him being an Injury prone.
Also Read:Â IPL 2025: 3 Best Knocks By KKR