NEW DELHI: When Kolkata Knight Riders mentor Gautam Gambhir bought Australian left-arm speedster Mitchell Starc for a record-shattering sum of Rs 24.75 crore in the December auction last year, fans and even pundits were absolutely stunned.
And after a jittery start to the season, where Starc was taken to the cleaners in almost every league game, trolling and memes followed Gambhir and KKR alongside Starc.
But as the tournament progressed the 34-year-old regained his lost rhythm and in the playoffs produced a couple of sensational performances, shutting down every critique.
After flooring Sunrisers Hyderabad in Qualifier 1, Starc once again roared with a mind-boggling performance against the same opposition in the IPL Final on Sunday.
And with pacer having a memorable night in the final, mentor Gambhir too was hailed by everyone for his belief in Starc.
What started as a tease and fun turned into appreciation and respect as Gambhir was lauded for his choice during the IPL auction.
In the final on Sunday, left-arm quick Starc returned figures of 2 for 14 while fellow quicks Andre Russell and Harshit Rana shared five wickets between them to dismiss the Sunrisers for a lowly 113 in 18.3 overs at Chennai's MA Chidambaram Stadium.
It was the lowest total in an IPL final after Chennai Super Kings' previous low of 125-9 in their loss to Mumbai Indians in 2013.
KKR, then hunted down the total inside 11 overs to clinch their third IPL title, beating SRH by eight wickets in Chennai.
Venkatesh Iyer remained not out on 52 off 26 balls, taking his side across the finish line.
Starc, Andre Russell (3/19) and Harshit Rana (2/24) were the most successful bowlers for the Knight Riders, as SRH simply failed to turn up for the big game.
Opting to bat first, SRH were off to a disastrous start as they lost their top guns Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head with just six runs on the board, with the latter getting dismissed for a first-ball duck to a beautiful outswinger.
Before that, Abhishek was bowled by Mitchell Starc on the fifth ball of the first over, a peach of a delivery opening up the left-hander before hitting the top of the off stump.
SRH were in all sorts of trouble as Starc accounted for the wicket of Rahul Tripathi to leave them reeling at 21/3 in the fifth over, the swing doing the trick for KKR bowlers early on.
First-change bowler Harshit Rana continued the good work and got rid of Nitish Reddy (13). Andre Russell dismissed Aiden Markram in his first over as SRH slipped to 62/5 in the 11th over.
SRH could not recover from there.
Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 113 all out in 18.3 overs (Pat Cummins 24; Mitchell Starc 2/14, Andre Russell 3/19, Harshit Rana 2/24).
Kolkata Knight Riders: 114 for 2 in 10.3 overs (Venkatesh Iyer 52 not out).
