DC vs RR, IPL 2025: Stark contrast as Mitch Starc nails yorkers to seal deal for Delhi Capitals in Super Over

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What a stark contrast, rather Starc contrast. On a night of joy and celebrations, pressure and poise, if fans seated inside the Ferozeshah Kotla Stadium on Wednesday (April 16) night were transported to delirium, thanks the first Super Over in the IPL 2025.

Before one looks at the academic stuff, who won and who lost, value the thrill not spill (dropped catches) in a contest between Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals, where Axar Patel's men came out trumps.

The damn thing about a Super Over is, the whole action played out in 40 overs becomes redundant. It is a bit like a super tie-breaker in tennis or a shootout in a football contest. If the word penalties is used to decide an IPL match, Mitchell Starc, lean, mean and hungry showed he could swing and seal it for Delhi Capitals.

A seasoned campaigner and performer for Australia, with some decent batting skills to boot, Starc has been one of the most effective Aussies. He may not have been portrayed far ahead than many other Aussie legends, but what he has done in international cricket, across formats is rich.

He has lent cricket many glorious chapters, though what the IPL wanted to see was a left-arm fast bowler showcase his fighter-pilot like skills at the cockpit controls and show nerves as cool of a neurosurgeon at work.

For the new generation of cricket writers, or wannabe ones, the romance of cricket and portraying its characters is lost in statistical recaps. We live in an era where the very edifice of sports writing has become so banal, capturing the mood has become so hard.

If you look at cricket just as stats and data analytics, then it's robbing readers of the romance. What Starc produced was magic, what Starc did was truly sensational. How he was in control of his senses, his nerves and came out to bowl like a man who had popped a beta blocker pill to control his heart rate, stood out.

No jokes, no pill is allowed in cricket or any other spirit, and Aussies are very careful when it comes to anti-doping measures. Yet, for those who were watching the contest, the pulse rate raced, as each time Starc came and bowled the last over and in the Super Over, he looked in total control.

The way batters go hammer and tong in the IPL, though some still execute conventional cricket strokes, like Karun Nair's six off Jasprit Bumrah, or Virat Kohli unleashing a fierce straight six, cricket is hard in the IPL.

If you look at it from the prism of being a fast bowler with control over line and length, release and the trajectory, Starc is the master. It is one thing in red-ball cricket to fire the yorker but in white ball cricket, err, IPL, the bowlers have to think hard. It must have taken years of toil to attain such perfection over the deliveries which Starc fired at the Rajasthan Royals batters.

At 35 years plus, when the body is not as strong as before, athletes preserve themselves. For a fast bowler, it gets harder, as injury chances are high. But then, Mitch Starc, who was with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) last season as a buy at Rs 24.75 crores had to take a pay cut.

With Delhi Capitals, Starc had to take a pay cut and was bought at Rs 11.75 crores. Starc, too, has faced fitness issues and to have been with KKR and RCB before this, he knows a lot about the IPL.

Most important, big match, big stage, for the Aussie to showcase his yorker skills was a joy. There is a big risk, a minor error in pitching it short or the ball becoming a full toss, the batter jumps at it. Poise and purpose, Starc was an amalgam.

The noise level had increased at the Arun Jaitley stadium, which is the Ferozeshah Kotla for old timers. If pressure was a reference term, what RR faced was crazy. They saw captain Sanju Samson get injured in the contest.

And when they decided to throw in Riyan Parag for the Super Over, which seemed a wrong decision. A batter who has been in form on that day should have been allowed to face the heat, maybe Nitish Rana, who scored 51 off 26 balls.

He was in touch and would have been able to possible handle the angle and length created by Starc in the Super Over. Anyway, what will be worrying for RR is Samson getting injured. There is some kind of a jink for him in recent months, his run-in with the Kerala Cricket Association and then spending time in rehab at the Centre for Excellence in Bengaluru.

A word of praise for the spirit of Delhi Capitals, where Axar Patel as new leader has been stand-out. Bapu, for many. To have collapsed like a house of cards against Mumbai Indians at the same venue on Sunday, the comeback has been strong.

And for those who look at the IPL points table, to see Delhi Capitals on top seems as unbelievable as snowstorm in summer. 10 points from six matches, they are on a roll. Hopefully, frayed nerves like this will not be seen in the next few days of the IPL for Delhi.

As for the IPL as a whole, today (April 17) happens to be the birthday. From 2008 to 2025, the journey has been of growth and returns in every which way. That is, if you are a positive person and not a pessimist.

Indeed, 'Pyjama Cricket' as conceived by Kerry Packer over four decades ago is most accepted today in the world. If someone says he or she has not watched the IPL, don't believe it. People are skipping meals and TV serials for this 7:30 pm show. And what a celebration it was, one old man, Mitch Starc 'yorking' RR like the proverbial nail in the coffin.