For a long period of the night, Rajasthan Royals seemed destined to bury Delhi Capitals under a massive first-innings score, until Mitchell Starc arrived to change the script entirely. With RR cruising at 160 for 2, powered by aggressive knocks from Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel, and Riyan Parag, Starc produced a devastating burst in the death overs that derailed the innings completely.

The Australian pacer reduced the Royals to 166 for 5 in the space of an over and later dismissed Dasun Shanaka to finish with four wickets, a spell that ultimately proved decisive in DC’s five-wicket win.

Starc’s game-changing performance earned glowing praise from Capitals head coach Hemang Badani, calling the 36-year-old “one of the best role models in the sport.”

“His work ethic, his preparation with his own plans, and his training are above par. I don’t even see that with a lot of the younger boys. That’s the reason why he is sustained for so long. He is always talking to the younger lads and trying to pass on the knowledge. There is immense conversation that Starkey brings to the table.”

Badani also lamented Starc’s absence for a significant portion of the season, while expressing hope that a long-term solution could eventually be worked out between franchises and national boards.

“Ideally, I want my players available from day one. Stark is probably one of the biggest players in my squad. We’ve invested in him and we know that he’s a match-winner. But there are certain things which are above my pay grade and are decided by associations and governing bodies. If Cricket Australia does not release him, which was also the case with (Josh) Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, there’s little a coach or a franchise can do about it.”

Badani also steered clear of dwelling on the “what ifs” surrounding DC’s rotating opening combinations through the season, insisting that decisions always appear simpler in hindsight.

“If you go back to 2025, our issues were up top. Our openers were Faf du Plessis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Abhishek Porel, and K.L. Rahul. We just couldn’t figure out the right partnership. Hence, we were keen to have a proper opener with K.L., and that’s why we went to Pathum Nissanka and Ben Duckett. We were quite keen to get that partnership at the top going,” he explained.

“Pathum did give us 40s, 50s and 60s. I could be greedy and say that he could’ve given me a game of 80 or 100, but he’s not done badly. It’s now more the case of… with Abhishek Porel giving us 100 partnerships, which has happened later through the season, it might just feel that maybe we could have gone to him earlier, but it is a very easy conversation to have right now.”

As has often been the case this campaign, Badani doubled down on his opposition to the lack of home advantage on pitches at the team’s base at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. DC could only secure two victories in seven games at home this season.

“We primarily struggled at home. Add in last year, and we have four wins here from 12 games, and one of them being a Super Over. That pretty much tells you how the surface hasn’t been conducive to our style of play. We’ve many times not been able to figure out what the surface is like,” he said.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s blistering 21-ball 46 laid the foundation for what looked like a towering Rajasthan Royals total, before Mitchell Starc’s fiery spell at the death dragged Delhi Capitals back into the contest.

Sooryavanshi fell to a slower delivery from Madhav Tiwari, not the first time a change of pace proved effective in dismissing the 15-year-old this season. But RR batting coach Vikram Rathour dismissed suggestions that pace variation is a glaring weakness in the youngster’s game.

“Nobody is perfect. Everybody will have some weakness here and there. I don’t think slow ball is a weakness for him. I want bowlers to try that. On a wicket like this, where the ball is gripping a bit, a change of pace is good against anybody. It’s not only Vaibhav, who is a special player. Enough has been said about his ability and how good he is,” he opined.

“He provided us with a really good start. I just hope he converts one inning and goes deeper. The way he is batting and the way he prepares, I am sure that’s not too far off. We will see one of those innings which he will really convert and play a big knock. Otherwise, we are pretty happy with the way he is batting. We want him to bat that way.”

The former India batter also stressed that T20 success does not demand a one-dimensional approach, citing Virat Kohli as proof that batters. 

“Somebody like Virat is still extremely successful, even in this format. I won’t call him an out-and-out power-hitting player. That tells you that there’s scope for everybody to succeed, provided you have belief in your abilities and can commit to whatever options you take while you are batting. Back yourself.”

“You need to identify and know your strengths. And if you back your strengths and you play to your strengths, you can score runs. Dhruv (Jurel) need not bat like Vaibhav. Vaibhav shouldn’t look to bat like Dhruv. They have their own strengths and own ways of scoring. If they keep backing that and keep believing in their ability, they can succeed easily and we’ve seen that happening.”

Rathour also clarified that Ravindra Jadeja’s absence was down to a niggle rather than workload management, contrary to skipper Riyan Parag’s remarks before the match.

Delhi Capitals captain Axar Patel won the toss and opted to bowl against Rajasthan Royals in their Indian Premier League match on Sunday (May 17, 2026).

Tripurana Vijay makes his debut for DC. For RR as well, Ravi Singh makes his debut, replacing Ravindra Jadeja due to “workload management,” as per captain Riyan Parag.

The Teams

Rajasthan Royals: Riyan Parag (capt), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Ravi Singh, Donovan Ferreira, Shubham Dubey, Jofra Archer, Adam Milne, Brijesh Sharma, Yash Raj Punja.

Delhi Capitals: Axar Patel (capt), Abishek Porel, KL Rahul (wk), Sahil Parakh, Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Mukesh Kumar, Madhav Tiwari, Tripurana Vijay, Mitchell Starc, Lungi Ngidi.

The IPL playoffs are drawing closer, but certainty remains elusive. Delhi Capitals stand with its backs against the wall, clinging to fading hopes and fragile momentum. At the same time, for Rajasthan Royals, the fear is not immediate collapse but the slow, familiar unraveling of another promising season.

Under the lights at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Sunday (May 17, 2026), these two sides and their desperation will take centre stage.

Still alive but barely so, the equation is simple for the Capitals: win both remaining matches and hope results elsewhere fall into place. Even perfection may not suffice, with an unhelpful Net Run Rate of -0.993 leaving them with little control over their fate.

Their hopes rest heavily on a top-order searching for rhythm, particularly K.L. Rahul. Elegant for much of the season, Rahul arrives at a critical juncture carrying the weight of four consecutive low scores. The team would also welcome David Miller’s return to the line-up comes as a welcome too

This clash could be the turnaround, with Royals’ domestic pacers having struggled under pressure. Tushar Deshpande has leaked 12.1 runs per over this year and Sandeep Sharma 10.9, while Brijesh Sharma has oscillated between incisive and expensive.

Even Jofra Archer, usually the great disruptor, has looked vulnerable recently, conceding 12 an over (with two wickets) across his last three outings. Should that trend continue, the home side will back itself to post a formidable total or chase one down confidently.

RR, meanwhile, needs to arrest a repetitive second-half slide urgently. While Vaibhav Sooryavanshi saddles much of the load, Yashasvi Jaiswal has faded: 132 runs at 18.9 across his last seven innings after a blistering start.

Dhruv Jurel has followed a similar arc, averaging just 19.7 over the same stretch. Combined with an inconsistent middle-order, RR’s drift down the table begins to look less surprising and more inevitable.

With two defeats in as many matches at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, Rajasthan Royals head coach Kumar Sangakkara said the solution lay in sharper bowling execution and improved fielding ahead of Saturday’s (May 9, 2026) IPL clash against Gujarat Titans.

“I think it’s just about trying to execute as well as possible and backing it up with some good fielding. We can be a little bit smarter, a little bit better in the field,” he said.

Referring to the dropped catches in the loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad, he said that the recently installed LED lights at the stadium required fielders to adjust. “They’re quite different from what we are used to in other grounds. They’re much brighter and give a larger amount of visibility. We’ve been trying to see what the right adjustment is, so that the fielders are comfortable and don’t lose the ball in the glare of the lights. We’ve spoken to the ground authorities, and they’ve tried to lower or extend or change the direction of the lights. In the second game (vs. Delhi Capitals), I think it was fine,” he said.

Sangakkara said Donovan Ferreira has “heavily improved” against “both spin and pace” with greater access to different areas of the ground, crediting his experience in “franchise cricket around the world.”

Asked whether teams now value adaptability over consistency in batting profiles amid rising scoring rates, he said: “Adaptability is always the key. Consistency always depends on whether your strike rate is appropriate for the context of the game. Your attacking intent is always there. So, consistency is a byproduct. It’s not something that we look for”.