IPL 2025: Starc leaves everyone in awe with bullseye yorkers in death-over masterclass

New Delhi, April 17 (IANS) In shooting, archery, and darts, hitting the bullseye is the top priority. Hitting that small centre in the scoring circle requires pinpoint accuracy and exceptional self-control, making it very difficult for athletes to score points consistently.

In cricket, for fast bowlers, bowling a yorker is like hitting a bullseye. It is a type of ball which everyone wants to see consistently, as it is notoriously hard to hit for batters when executed bang-on by bowlers. However, its narrow margin of error means a yorker can drastically swing a team’s fate one way or the other.

If a bowler makes the slightest mistake in length, it creates an opportunity for batters to smash those converted full tosses and half-volleys for boundaries. The bullseye with the white Kookaburra ball is something which Delhi Capitals (DC) were craving for in their defence of 188/5 against Rajasthan Royals (RR) on a warm Wednesday evening at their original home venue, the Arun Jaitley Stadium.

With 31 runs needed off 18 balls and Nitish Rana just completing his second fifty of the season, DC entrusted the 18th over duties to Mitchell Starc, who began with two off-cutters and a low full toss. But after a switch to over-the-wicket angle, Starc brought out his version of a bullseye – tailing in (read reverse swing aided by saliva) to hit a shuffling Rana’s boot and trap him lbw.

Though Shimron Hetmyer got a lucky boundary off the inside edge, things became more tense when the equation for RR read as nine runs needed off the last over. For RR, it looked gettable, considering Starc had the old ball in hand, and layered in heavy dew.

Starc summoned all of his energy of being the bullseye hitter by delivering pin point yorkers sandwiched between two on-field meetings with skipper Axar Patel, as Hetmyer and Dhruv Jurel were forced to deal in ones and twos, before the latter was run-out on the last ball in the pursuit of a second run.

As expected, DC selected Starc for the Super Over, and he faithfully relied on his accurate yorker, the shining armour in his bowling repertoire. Despite a no-ball conceded while bowling around the wicket to Riyan Parag, Starc managed to keep RR to 11 runs and force them to commit two run-outs.

The target of 12 was enough for the DC to win and reclaim their top spot in the points table in front of a frenetic home crowd, all thanks to a bullseye-hitting relentless force named Starc.

Axar, the DC skipper, also highlighted how a combination of saliva and lack of grass on pitches aided Starc in getting the ideal reverse swing formula.

"Because we can use saliva this season, and since there isn't much grass on the surface, you can get the ball to reverse. I feel it's fair for bowlers, given how the grounds are, and how batsmen's bats are, and how runs keep flowing.

"We're getting 180-190 scores, and it's fun when that happens, because it's competitive cricket, and it's not as if there's nothing in it for the bowlers. So I feel we're able to get reverse-swing because of the use of saliva.

"Getting reverse-swing is one thing, but executing it is very important. It was reversing, but at that time, under pressure, he (Starc) was executing it. I was just reminding him to be clear with his plans, and trust himself. I was getting the same response: 'Don't worry, skip. I'll do it'," he said in the post-match press conference.

Amidst things heating up on the field and heart rate of off-field people in the stadium going up, Starc was just mentally focused on the job he had to do – deliver yorkers accurately. “When he came to bowl the 18th over, I thought that he is executing yorker correctly, as he knows where to bowl. In power play, the type of cricket T20 people are playing now, you can get hit, but how do you come back?

“That only tells you why he is such a big player or a legend for Australia. His mindset, when I talk to him, he says that if I get hit, I don't want to bowl. He is clear in his plan. When he comes in the 19th and 20th over, he tells me that I will do and execute it like this. He is clear in his plan, so he can execute more balls, and that tells us how strong his mindset is," Axar added.

Nitish Rana, whose dismissal by Starc set the stage for DC’s inspired comeback via a death overs masterclass, was also left in awe of the pacer and his yorker hitting skills. “The wicket was a little tricky and obviously not easy for a new batter, as the ball was stopping, and turning. Plus, the difference that we saw from saliva, the reverse swing that we saw from Starc, I think the credit goes to him.

“But there was a lot of difference from saliva. In the last 2-3 years, we didn't use saliva, so we didn't bat like that in nets either, as reverse swing was completely different from cricket, whether it was red-ball or white-ball. Now suddenly, if in the last 2 overs, out of 12 balls, 11 yorkers are executed at the pace of 145, that too with a reverse swing, I guess, so that credit has to be given to Starc for the way he bowled. I've seen this kind of death overs bowling after a long time, especially in IPL," he said.

The match didn’t begin well for Starc, as Yashasvi Jaiswal plundered runs off him in the powerplay. However, his consistently reliable death bowling continues to impress, with his signature yorkers regularly finding the blockhole, a feat reminiscent of the accuracy found in shooting, archery, and darts to leave everyone in awe once again.

--IANS

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