He bagged the Player of the Match award.
Delhi Capitals (DC) won the first Super Over of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 against Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium after both teams scored 188 runs. Mitchell Starc was the key player for DC. He took the important wicket of Nitish Rana and bowled accurate yorkers in the last over when RR needed nine runs to win. The match went to a Super Over after a last-ball run-out.
Starc bowled again in the Super Over, giving away only 11 runs and helping with two run-outs. DC chased the target in four balls. The Australian was named Player of the Match for his match-winning effort.
The ball was reversing for Starc as he bowled two crucial overs. This came after the saliva ban was lifted by the BCCI just before the start of IPL 2025. Bowlers can now use saliva to shine the ball, which can assist in producing reverse swing, particularly towards the latter part of the innings.
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But after the match, Starc explained that he did not apply saliva to the ball during the game. He explained that he believes using saliva does not really help in getting reverse swing with the white ball, unlike with the red ball in Test matches. He called it a myth and said it doesn’t make much difference in limited-overs cricket.
“I didn’t use Saliva on the ball tonight. It’s a myth, I don’t believe it helps reserving in white ball like with red ball,” Starc said.
Speaking to ESPNcricinfo, Ian Bishop explained that those who follow the game closely understand how hard it is to bowl yorkers. He said fans watching from home might say things like bowl a yorker or bowl six yorkers in a row, but it is not that easy. According to him, the last two overs showed the best of Starc.
“Those of us who sort of look at the game in a bigger picture talk about how difficult that is. The guy sitting at home in his living room saying, ‘bowl a yorker, bowl six yorkers, bowl 12 yorkers’ — they’re not that easy to bowl. So what we saw tonight was the best of Mitchell Starc in those last two overs,” Ian Bishop said.
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