DC vs RR, 32nd Match at Delhi, IPL, Apr 16 2025 - Ball by Ball Commentary

12.10am Well, that will be that! IPL 2025 has it's first Super Over and the winners go top of the points table, a position they only abandoned for a brief period. I'm still fawning over that Starc spell at the death. People spoke about his 20th over, but it was that tailing yorker that got Nitish Rana that could be any delivery from a Mitch Starc YouTube compilation. It's been a match and a half! But that's all the action tonight. On behalf of Himanshu, Vairavan and everyone else at ESPNcricinfo, it's Abhimanyu signing off. Good night!

12 midnight Time for the presentation ceremony.

The player of the match is Mitchell Starc. Here's what he has to say: "[On the final over] Just backed my execution. Run in with a clear plan and try to execute it. Sometimes it doesn't come off, today it did. [Did he think about changing his plan?] I've played long enough that everyone knows what I'm going to do. You can play that over ten more times and do ten different things and it can go different ways. [On the Super Over] I got away with a couple there (his no-ball). [On the team atmosphere] It's a good mix of youth and experience. Axar is leading nicely and we have Faf and KL and Stubbs who have been around for a while. Kuldeep has been fantastic. And success helps and tonight will definitely help."

Axar Patel: "All's well that ends well. I think the kind of start we got, the way the powerplay went, I thought we could have batted quicker, but in the timeout KL and Porel said the wicket isn't that easy. We got momentum from the 12th and 13th over and then we finished well and put on a good score. The wicket was a little sticky and new batters were not being able to score runs quickly. [After RR's powerplay] When the opposition scores runs you start going towards the panic over, but we took the timeout and I said that this is when the game will start. It won't be easy for them to hit boundaries so we need to keep our faith and try to get wickets. When set batters get out, a couple of wickets fall, new batters panic and think they need to get runs quickly and that's what happened with them. [On his performance] This year, the way I wanted to bowl I wasn't able to. But when your team is winning you feel more confidence. And it was in my head that I have to set an example for the team and contribute. I focused on my process and today it went well both bowling and batting. [On the final over] I thought that if Starc could execute, he could bring us back in the game. He bowled the 20th over and the Super Over. So to bowl 12 yorkers in 12 balls, that's why he's an Australian legend."

Sanju Samson: "It feels alright. I was just not ready to come back and bat here. We'll observe it tomorrow and see how it is. I think we bowled really well. There were phases where they came hard at us. But I would like to give credit to all our bowlers and fielders. I thought that score was definitely chaseable but as we all saw it was a fantastic over from Starcy. I'd like to give it to Starcy, I think he won the game for them in the 20th over. [Super Over] The plan was to swing hard. You know he's going to come hard at you so we had to go harder at him. [On Sandeep] I think he has been bowling the toughest overs for me for the last few years. I am very fortunate to have someone like him with me. The way Jofra backed him and everyone played around him... but in the end Starcy took it away from us."

11.50pm What a thriller! Rajasthan Royals were probably on top of this game for longer periods, with both bat and the ball. But then Axar, Ashutosh and Stubbs with the bat and then Starc with the ball brought Delhi right back in the game across the two innings. And then Starc delivered in the Super Over before KL Rahul used his experience to set up the win for Delhi Capitals. Four wins on the trot, a defeat and then a Super Over win! Incredible stuff!

5 needed off 3 A position Royals were in not too long ago!

Tristan Stubbs is one of the batters going out for Delhi Capitals. KL Rahul will be the other. Sandeep Sharma with ball in hand. Ashutosh Sharma will come in if there's a wicket. Let's go!

So, Delhi Capitals kept Royals down to 11. Will Axar Patel come out to bat? Starc is in the dugout looking absolutely exhausted, as he should. Sandeep Sharma and Archer are options for this one. I'd probably go for Sandeep, with his pace-off deliveries rather than feeding the batters with pace from Archer.

Also, RR finally use their impact player, with Shubham Dubey on to field in place of Maheesh Theekshana

Yashasvi Jaiswal comes out. He will be off strike right now

Shimron Hetmyer and Riyan Parag are the two batters walking out. No Nitish Rana? Odd, but is this again due to the left-right combination? Dravid is taking notes. Who will bowl?

Over the wicket to Hetmyer. Here we go

Starc has the ball in hand. Can he deliver one more gun over?