• Starc, Salt help Kolkata thrash Lucknow

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    Phil Salt’s rapid 89 and three wickets for Mitchell Starc helped the Kolkata Knight Riders race to a crushing eight-wicket win over the Lucknow Super Giants on Sunday.

    Starc’s 3-28 kept Lucknow down to 161-7 at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens, with the other Knight Riders’ bowlers putting in disciplined performances after their side elected to field first.

    The Australian left-arm quick became the most expensive buy in IPL history after Kolkata shelled out $2.98-million for his services.

    Opener Salt then steered the two-time IPL winners to their target in 15.4 overs for their fourth victory in five matches this season.

    It was the English wicketkeeper-batsman’s second half-century in the current IPL edition after he scored 54 in his team’s opening win last month.

    Salt held the chase together despite Kolkata losing two wickets, including opener Sunil Narine for six.

    He put on 120 runs with skipper Shreyas Iyer, who made 38, smashing 14 fours and three sixes in his 47-ball knock.

    Players have been jostling to impress their national selectors ahead of the upcoming T20 World Cup starting 1 June in the West Indies and USA.

    Starc started slowly, leaking 10 runs in his first over, but came back strongly and sent back Deepak Hooda in his third with the help of a diving catch at backward point from Ramandeep Singh.

    Mystery spinner Narine choked the flow of runs and returned figures of 1-17 before Starc bowled the 20th over for just six runs and two wickets.

    He got the dangerous Nicholas Pooran on the first ball, caught behind for 45, and finished with a yorker to bowl Arshad Khan.

    © Agence France-Presse

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    Simon Borchardt