When KKR shelled out an unprecedented INR 24.75 crore to acquire Mitchell Starc in the IPL 2024 auction, it raised a few eyebrows. But the franchise clearly knew what they were doing. Since the start of the 2018 cycle, KKR had averaged fewer than 1.5 PowerPlay wickets per innings in each of the six preceding seasons. Starc, despite not featuring in a T20 league for nearly a decade, brought with him a high ceiling, and that upside paid off. He took time to settle, but once he found rhythm in the Playoffs, he broke open games with new-ball spells, notably blowing away SRH twice in the space of a week.
The dynamics of the mega auction meant KKR couldn’t retain Starc despite bidding up to INR 10 crore. Instead, they turned to fellow Australian Spencer Johnson to partner with homegrown Vaibhav Arora, who had picked up nine PowerPlay wickets in 2024.
However, coming into Friday’s contest, KKR had taken just five new-ball wickets all season, with a PowerPlay average of 56.20 – the worst among all teams. Arora and Johnson, in particular, had tried to pitch the ball full to extract swing, but were severely punished. KKR seamers had bowled 24.05% of deliveries fuller than a good length – second only to LSG, mainly due to Shardul Thakur’s methods. But when KKR pacers did pitch it up, they leaked runs at 14.84 – the highest for any team – exposing the inexperience and lack of Starc’s incisiveness and skills.
Seam attacks by length in IPL 2025 (pre-CSK clash)
| Team | Full % | Good % | Short % | ER (full) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LSG | 29.17% | 43.33% | 27.50% | 9.77 |
| KKR | 24.05% | 36.08% | 39.87% | 14.84 |
| RR | 20.29% | 37.68% | 42.03% | 10.07 |
| DC | 19.19% | 33.33% | 47.47% | 9.16 |
| GT | 16.09% | 54.02% | 29.89% | 11.57 |
| MI | 11.54% | 50.64% | 37.82% | 7.33 |
| SRH | 8.97% | 46.15% | 44.87% | 12.43 |
| CSK | 8.90% | 38.36% | 52.74% | 12.46 |
| PBKS | 8.26% | 56.20% | 35.54% | 10.20 |
| RCB | 7.47% | 52.30% | 40.23% | 12.00 |
Against CSK, KKR pacers pitched it up just twice, both right in the blockhole. Arora stuck to the good-length zone around the seven-metre mark, getting movement both through the air and off the pitch. Harshit Rana, introduced in the fifth over, bowled a sharp back-of-length delivery to dismiss Rachin Ravindra off his very first ball, one that swung in and seamed away.
To offset their seam bowling shortfall, KKR continued a long-standing strategy of frontloading their spinners. In both the 2018-21 (35.7%) and 2022-24 (22.6%) cycles, they bowled the highest proportion of PowerPlay spin overs, although this often left them light later in the innings.
But on a Chepauk pitch offering grip and hold, and with two left-handers opening for CSK, Moeen Ali, replacing Johnson in the XI, was handed the new ball. On a ground he knows well, Moeen struck with the wicket of Devon Conway and bowled the first maiden over by a spinner in IPL 2025. It was also the first time this season that KKR used more than one over of spin in the PowerPlay. Moeen’s spell read: 2-1-4-1.
That move gave KKR the luxury of holding back Narine and Chakravarthy to target CSK’s middle order, and they did just that, combining for 8 overs, 35 runs, and key wickets that wrecked CSK’s backbone.
It was a night when the defending champions got their PowerPlay game spot on – setting the tone for a memorable win that propelled them to third on the points table.
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