Courtesy: BCCI/IPL/Star Sports
Former Australia all-rounder and Rajasthan Royals’ (RR) legend Shane Watson displayed anger over RR’s move to bat in the Super Over against Delhi Capitals (DC) without Nitish Rana. Chasing a target of 189 runs at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Rajasthan fumbled in the last over when pacer Mitchell Starc held his nerves and succeeded in defending nine runs against Dhruv Jurel and Shimron Hetmyer. The star Australia speedster’s magnificent bowling display extended the match as the Indian Premier League (IPL) fans now got to witness their first Super Over in the marquee T20 tournament after four years. In the Super Over, RR came to bat first and they handed the charge to Shimron Hetmyer and Riyan Parag to accumulate runs at a swift pace.
DC tasked Starc to put bridle on both batters and the Aussie delivered the desired results as the Pink Army could score only 11 runs in the over. Delhi chased down the score with two balls to spare, riding on Tristan Stubbs’ match-winning six and won their fifth game in the competition. After the match, Watson came heavily on RR for not sending Nitish Rana to bat in the Super Over as the left-handed batter was looking in excellent touch while chasing the score for the Men in Pink. The southpaw was the best batter for Royals in the game, notching up 51 off just 28.
"There were some brainfade moments as there were couple of run-outs. We kept on saying what wrong has Nitish Rana done that he was not sent in the Super Over. You have a batter who is set and has scored runs. In that case, not sending him made no sense," said the former Aussie.
DC return as table toppers in IPL 2025
The victory against RR has catapulted DC to the top of the points tally. It was their fifth victory in the competition. Starc, who shone with the ball, got the player of the match (POTM) award. Delhi will next clash against Gujarat Titans (GT) at the Narendra Modi Stadium on April 19.
Capitals deposed GT to become the leader of the tally. Gujarat lost their previous match against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the Ekana Cricket Stadium on April 12. DC and GT have played five games against each other with the former having an upper hand with three wins.
