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Delhi down Royals in Super Over to restore IPL lead

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Apr 16, 2025Cricket

Delhi Capitals returned to the Indian Premier League summit with a dramatic Super Over victory against the Rajasthan Royals, with Mitchell Starc the hosts' hero.

After four straight wins to open the 2025 tournament, Delhi were replaced at the top of the standings by the Gujarat Titans, having lost to the Mumbai Indians by just 12 runs on Sunday.

And with the Royals needing nine runs off their final over for victory, the Capitals looked set for back-to-back defeats.

But Starc limited Rajasthan to just eight to force the first Super Over of the season, and Tristan Stubbs' six sealed victory after two Royals batters were run out in chaotic fashion.

An early wicket for Jofra Archer and a mix-up that saw Karun Nair run out for a duck left the Capitals 34-2, though Abishek Porel (49) and KL Rahul (38) got them back in contention.

After Archer had Rahul caught, Porel failed to heed a major warning. He clearly got some bat on Archer's delivery and was caught behind, but the Royals failed to review.

However, from the very next ball, he looked to go down the ground for his half-century and was caught by Riyan Parag. From there, 34 runs apiece from Stubbs and Axar Patel got Delhi to 188-5.

The Rajasthan chase started in much more positive fashion, with Sanju Samson (31) retiring hurt when they were 61-0 midway through the sixth over.

Axar Patel snared Parag (8) for his first wicket of the season, though Yashasvi Jaiswal (51) continued to chip away at the Royals' target, making his third half-century of 2025 shortly before he was caught by Starc.

Nitish Rana took the mantle from there, but the match turned when Starc trapped him lbw for another score of 51 with a crashing 144km/h ball. Starc's miserly bowling then forced a Super Over, where some bizarre decision-making from the Royals' batters cost them.

Parag and Jaiswal were run out as Starc kept them to 11 runs, and after KL Rahul narrowly avoided the same fate, Stubbs hit the maximum that decided the encounter.

Data debrief: Super Over specialists

This was the first time in nine T20 matches at the Arun Jaitley Stadium where the team opening the batting failed to reach 200. The Capitals looked like they would pay for missing that mark, but after Mohit Sharma was hit for six by Dhruv Jarel in the penultimate over, they only conceded 12 runs off nine balls.

Starc, Rahul and Stubbs then produced the big moments in the Super Over – the first such decider in any IPL match since April 2021.

On that occasion, the Capitals were also victorious against Sunrisers Hyderabad. In fact, Delhi have won their last four matches to be decided in a Super Over, having lost their first (as the Delhi Daredevils) in 2013.

No other IPL franchise has had five matches go the distance.