The Art of Seam Bowling in a Batter's World: Mitchell Starc's Piece de Resistance in an Age of Mad Hitting

Kolkata Knight Riders can boast the newly acquired third star on their iconic purple shirts henceforth as they picked up their third IPL trophy in the 2024 season of the money-spinning extravaganza with a rout of Sunrisers Hyderabad in the final of the competition on Sunday night.

In a season marked by recurring run-fests and tumbling records, it seemed as though the ultra-aggressive nature of the batters, to a hitherto unseen extent, had tipped the balance of the sport in favour of those presented with the ability to wield a willow.

Also Read: How Kolkata Knight Riders Celebrated IPL Title

And the wreckers-in-chief with the season, SRH, rewrote the history books time and again in the course of just over a month with destructive batting that surpassed the wildest imaginations of cricket connoisseurs around the globe.

While universal sympathies went out to the bowlers, there were certain names thrown under the bus as some were yet subjected to immense scrutiny for leaking an undesirable number of runs. And headlining the category was KKR lead pacer Mitchell Starc, who also had to carry the burden of the heavy toll of Rs 24.75 crore that the Kolkata-based unit shelled out to acquire the services of the Australian World Cup winner.

It was a bit of a dampener to witness an era-defining seamer such as Starc being smashed all around the park through the group stage of the lucrative event, however, the well-oiled KKR line survived the challenges to top the league and earn the first playoff spot.

However, the battle-hardened Australian has been known for his fondness of popping up big at grand stages and in crucial times as he demonstrated yet again at the Narendra Modi Stadium (Qualifier 1) and followed it up with a player-of-the-match performance in the summit clash at the fabled MA Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday.

Also Read: SRH Married to Ethos of Ultra-aggression Despite Final Frontier Debacle

The pacer undid the heretofore devastating SRH batting order, which had notched both the highest-ever total in the shortest format of the game and the highest-ever powerplay score, all in the same season, with a three-fer in the qualifier and a brace of scalps in the championship match.

Starc displayed his array of seam bowling with symphonic spells that left the opponents panting for breath and propelled KKR to a dominant title win at the place where the Shah Rukh Khan-owned franchise had secured its first-ever title over a decade ago.

The pacer’s redemption saga at the business end of the T20 carnival stands as a beacon for the art of quick bowling in a T20 climate that seems to be clement in favour of batters.

“It has certainly been a tournament of sixers and big totals,” Starc began, speaking at the post-match presser following his title triumph.

“It has definitely been a tougher tournament for bowlers, but those who have found a way or those who have been good enough have stood at the top of wicket-taking or economy,” he continued.

“It is easy for someone like me who has been around for a long time and been through the ups and downs,” he reflected.

The 34-year-old shared his piece on dealing with testing days and emphasised the innate nature of the sport, which possesses the ability to induce fluctuating emotions on the opposite ends of the spectrum.

“Not every day is a good day, and I always think that you’re never as good as people say you are, and you’re never as bad as people say you are,” Starc said.

“And T20 is a great leveller, you can have a good day and two days later you could have a shocking one. So that’s one thing that has kept me in good stead throughout and pretty level,” he added.

He underscored the beauty of edification through challenges and suggested that picking up learnings from chastising experiences would only sharpen the bowler’s skills in the discipline.

“I think that’s the best advice I could give. You got to enjoy the journey for its good and bad. And if you can learn from your tougher days it is going to make you a better bowler,” he reassured.

Sri Lankan spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan had expressed midway through the run-bonanza season that it would be unwise to write off the soaring scores as a norm going forward as bowling units would eventually realise methods to rein in the massive flow of runs.

As naturally progressive as it sounds, only time will tell if a clamp to curb the rampant run-scoring will find its way to T20 cricket, but savants of seam-bowling can take heart from displays such as the one the man from Baulkham Hills dished out at the hallowed MAC.

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