Two highest-priced players in IPL, Australia teammates Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc are set to square off on Tuesday for a place in the last game as this rich T20 league enters its playoff stage.
Captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad Pat Cummins earned $2.5 million at auction, briefly making a record till Kolkata Knight Riders bought quick bowler Mitchell Starc at $2.98m.
Hyderabad, former champions, made it to second spot with a four-run win over Punjab Kings on Sunday while Kolkata were top of the table. They have thus arranged the face-off at Ahmedabad’s biggest cricket ground on Wednesday with winners progressing to Sunday’s final match.
The losers will have another opportunity on Friday against either Rajasthan Royals positioned third or Royal Challengers Bangalore which was fourth. These teams will play in the Eliminator match this Wednesday.
Just six days after the IPL final is scheduled for October 15th, there will be the T20 World Cup being held in West Indies/USA. Last year, Cummins led his team to victory in the 50-over World Cup by defeating India in Ahmedabad.
“We’ve had a lot of fun and played some really great cricket,” said Cummins whose side twice broke the IPL scoring record this season notching up scores of 277 and 287 respectively.
“It’s satisfying and exciting,” he said about being in the playoffs. “A few guys haven’t been involved up until now — I’ve never been.”
Kolkata have been the team to beat this year with 20 points from 14 matches; becoming the first team out of all ten Indian Premier League sides to seal their place in playoffs.
Their total of 272 for 7 runs scored against Delhi Capitals was only bettered by two massive totals from Hyderabad Cricket Association-South Zone Grounds (310 for five). This was third highest innings total ever recorded during an IPL tournament
Although Starc had a quiet start with match-winning figures of 3 for 38 against the Lucknow Super Giants last month, he justified his hefty price tag. He found his form just in time for the World Cup as evidenced by his 4 for 33 against Mumbai Indians at Wankhede Stadium earlier this month.
Starc has taken only 12 wickets in 12 matches yet he has conceded runs at over 11 per over on the batting-friendly pitches of this year’s competition.
On other hand, Cummins, who has played total of thirteen games and got his fifteen wickets. But it was also captaincy that made all difference as strategic rotation of bowlers under him resulted into Hyderabad winning eight out of fourteen matches played. Also valuable has been some lower-order batting from Cummins, who has scored up to an unbeaten total of thirty-five runs. Remarkably in 2022 for Kolkata he once blasted a fifty off just fourteen balls in IPL.
In Hyderabad along with Cummins remains another Australian Travis Head. The aggressive opener has scored five hundred and thirty three runs inclusive of one century as well as four half-centuries taking him behind Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) Virat Kohli having accumulated seven hundred and eight runs respectively.
Bengaluru reached playoffs thanks to a thrilling win over Chennai Super Kingsin their final league match yesterday keeping their hopes alivefor their first IPL title while Kohli secured RCB’s place at the finals stageby leading them to victory over CSK.
