Ahmedabad: Mitchell Starc struck three early blows to help Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) storm into the IPL final with an eight-wicket thrashing of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) here on Tuesday.
Two-time champions KKR bowled out SRH for 159 as Starc returned figures of 3/34 in Qualifier 1 at the Narendra Modi Stadium. Left-arm quick Starc justified his price tag from the December auction when he became the most expensive buy in IPL history.
Venkatesh Iyer, on 51, and skipper Shreyas Iyer, on 58, remained unbeaten as KKR achieved their target with 38 balls to spare.
SRH will have another shot at making the final when they clash with the winners of the Eliminator in the second qualifier on Friday in Chennai.
Starc struck with the second ball of the match when he had fellow Australian Travis Head bowled for a second successive duck in the tournament. It was Starc's twin strikes in his third over that rattled the opposition as he sent back Nitish Reddy (9) and Shahbaz Ahmed (0) with successive balls as SRH slipped to 39/4 in five overs.
Rahul Tripathi, who made 55, and Heinrich Klaasen, who scored 32, hit back in a stand of 62 before Varun Chakravarthy broke through with his spin to send back Klaasen. Tripathi was run out and wickets kept tumbling before captain Pat Cummins boosted the total with his 24-ball 30.
In reply, Rahmanullah Gurbaz gave KKR a strong start with his 23 of 14 balls and fellow opener Sunil Narine made 21 before being dismissed by Cummins.
Southpaw Venkatesh kept up the charge in an unbeaten stand of 97 with Shreyas, who steered the team home with a six for KKR's fourth final.
Rajasthan Royals will take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Eliminator at the same venue on Wednesday.
