Follow UsIt was only in Delhi Capitals' (DC) last game against Rajasthan Royals (RR) that Mitchell Starc produced an absolute masterclass in death bowling and single-handedly propelled his team to their fifth win of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. The left-armer bowled yorkers after yorkers, took the game into a Super Over, and dismantled RR.
Starc defended nine runs in the final over against Shimron Hetmyer and Dhruv Jurel. However, in the fixture versus Gujarat Titans (GT) on April 19 (Saturday), Starc had 10 runs to defend and was up against Jos Buttler and Rahul Tewatia. And, the latter made sure there wasn’t another Starc masterclass as he got the required runs in just two balls.
Chasing a target of 204, GT lost Shubman Gill in the second over, but Sai Sudharsan (21-ball 36) and Buttler put on 60 runs for the second wicket. Sherfane Rutherford (34-ball 43) then took over and pushed Gujarat forward alongside Buttler. GT needed 15 off 12, and that’s when Mukesh Kumar bowled a superb 19th over, dismissing Rutherford and conceding only five runs.
New batter Tewatia was on strike, and considering what Starc had done in the previous game, the GT dugout looked tense. However, Tewatia has been in this situation many times and, more often than not, has done the job for the Titans.
Starc missed the yorker just by a bit, and Tewatia stood deep in the crease and whipped it over deep mid-wicket for a stunning six. That six sealed the deal for GT, and Starc realised he can’t do the unthinkable in every game. The left-arm seamer went for a yorker once again, got it right, but Tewatia got an inside edge that went for a boundary towards fine leg.
Tewatia got 11 off three deliveries, keeping Buttler unbeaten on 97 off 54. A century would have helped Buttler equal Virat Kohli’s record of most hundreds in the IPL (8), but that didn’t matter to him as Gujarat won the game and went to the top of the IPL 2025 points table.