For one ball in Jaipur, it felt like the usual script was loading again. A first-ball six, the crowd up, and the idea of another powerplay blitz taking shape.
Then Mitchell Starc did what he has done for years. No overreaction, no change in plan. Two balls later, Yashasvi Jaiswal was gone, mistiming a high full toss straight back. The noise dipped just enough, and that was the first shift.
RR vs DC: HIGHLIGHTS | SCORECARD
What followed only deepened it. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi never got to face Starc, undone at the other end by Kyle Jamieson. RR were 12 for 2 inside 1.3 overs on a pitch where 220-plus was always in play.
From there, the innings kept moving, but never quite ran away.
TIMING OVER DRAMA
Starc finished with 3 for 40, but the impact sat in the timing more than the numbers.
This was also a bowling unit that had taken a hit in confidence. After failing to defend 265 against Punjab Kings earlier in the season, Delhi Capitals’ attack had come under serious scrutiny. On a flat Jaipur pitch, there wasn’t much backing coming into this one either.
Starc changed that narrative quickly.
His first over disrupted the start, but the real blow came in the 17th. Ravindra Jadeja fell first, and just a couple of balls later, Riyan Parag followed.
Parag had already put together a fluent 90 and was batting like he had complete control of the innings. RR looked set for a proper finish with him in. That dismissal, coming right after Jadeja, took the momentum out of the innings at the exact moment they needed to push.
Two wickets in the same over, both set batters gone, and RR had to reset again.
On surfaces like this, those small breaks decide whether a total becomes 220 or stretches to 240-plus. RR still got going, but never in one clean stretch.
Starc himself admitted it was about getting back into rhythm.
“I think I was good to get some running in the legs, I hadn’t bowled to a batter for three months until tonight. So it’s sort of getting back to that speed pretty quickly.”
For someone coming back after missing most of the season, there was no easing in. It just looked like he picked up from where he left off.
POWERPLAY SET THE TONE
RR did recover to 56 for 2 in the powerplay, which on paper looks solid. But because of how they started, it always felt like they were building back rather than dictating.
Compare that to Delhi Capitals’ approach.
Pathum Nissanka and KL Rahul came out with intent and clarity, taking DC to 70 without loss in the powerplay. That 20-25 run difference, without losing wickets, changed the chase completely.
DC didn’t have to search for momentum. They already had it.
They didn’t need one big over to swing things. They just stayed ahead.
EXPERIENCE SHOWS UP
The build-up was around Sooryavanshi vs Starc. The expectation was fireworks.
What actually played out was much simpler.
Starc didn’t try to dominate the contest. He just stayed in it longer than the batters did. He absorbed the early hit, struck back quickly, and returned exactly when the innings was about to take off.
Axar Patel summed it up best.
“The way he bowled today, that’s why he’s a legend of the game. After three months away, coming back and delivering a performance like this on a wicket like this, it tells you how big a player he is.”
That’s the takeaway.
Even after time away, even without match rhythm, the instinct stays the same.
And on nights like this, that instinct is enough.
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