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.