Mitchell Starc, the costliest player ever in the history of the IPL played his first intra-squad practice match for Kolkata Knight Riders on Tuesday evening and returned figures of 1/40 in four overs against his own teammates.

Starc, who is set to play his first Indian Premier League in eight years, had his moments but was mostly taken on by Rinku Singh and Manish Pandey in the death overs. Representing Team Purple against Team Gold, Starc began with a very happening over, as he conceded just one run and took a wicket - dismissing Rahmanullah Gurbaz LBW. But from the second over, despite Starc trying his best to trouble the batters with pace, came up a little short. Angkrish Raghuvanshi, the opener was troubled initially, getting beaten up a couple of times before finding his groove. The 22-year-old chipped down the wicket and struck a pull shot that got him a boundary and followed it with a wonderful drive down the ground to make it consecutive fours. In between, Starc also took a catch in the deep to help Andre Russell dismiss Venkatesh Iyer. The Australian left-arm quick spent the better part of the remaining 14 overs fielding, during which he saved a couple of boundaries. With three overs to go, Starc was back with the ball in hand, but this time the job at hand was even trickier with Rinku Singh and Manish Pandey at the crease. With Team Gold on 148/8, Rinku welcomed Starc with a cheeky late cut for four, followed by a couple of runs. The next ball, Rinku tried to clear the boundary again by playing a ramp shot but the ball fell short of the fielder at third man. Pandey took a single off the penultimate ball of the over to put Rinku back on strike. A wide followed before Rinku hoicked the ball wide of long off, to make it a 10-run over.

The death overs

Starc's fourth over was also the final of the innings, and it began with Rinku picking up a low full toss and dispatching it over deep square leg for a six. Rinku tried to blast the next ball through the off side but all he could manage was a single. With Pandey on strike, Starc bowled a wide full toss, with the batter putting bat to ball at the last moment and earning himself a boundary. Starc then came round the wicket but there was no respite as Pandey slashed the ball over the keeper's head to make it two out of two. With the hammering getting real, Starc wore a brave smile as he walked back to his mark, hoping to make amends. He did it to a certain extent allowing a single off the next ball, but Rinku patched on to the final delivery of Starc's over and the innings with a full-blooded drive through the offside for four. 20 runs came off it, including a six and three boundaries to cap off Starc's first bowling outing of any kind in the IPL since 2015. Read more news like this on HindustanTimes.com