At a toss that there was a lot to report from, perhaps the headline went to Rajasthan Royals (RR) choosing to bat first in a night game at a ground where they didn’t even come close to defending 228 against Sunrisers Hyderabad. RR captain Riyan Parag felt the pitch was dry with patchy grass, which was a factor in their decision. Also heavy wind at the time of the toss might have out their minds at ease regarding possible dew. Not that anything would have swayed Delhi Capitals (DC) from chasing had they won the toss.

RR’s call at the toss set up in earnest the much-anticipated contest between Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Mitchell Starc, finally fit and ready to play his first match of this IPL. Sooryavanshi has hit Jasprit Bumrah for first-ball sixes, Sunil Narine for one off the second ball, and sent Josh Hazlewood for four boundaries off the first four balls he faced from the fair dinkum Hall of Famer.

Starc’s entry into the IPL meant Dushmantha Chameera had to sit out. That wasn’t the only change for DC, who were bowled out for 75 in their last game. Their opener from the last match, Sahil Parakh, necessitating the return of Pathum Nissanka at the top of the order. The return of an extra overseas player meant DC had to leave out one of the other four, who ended up being David Miller.

RR rewarded Shubham Dubey’s assured work with Donovon Ferreira in their chase of 223 against Punjab Kings with a place in the starting XI. It pushed out Dasun Shanaka, leaving them more manoeuvring space with the Impact Player, who could even be Adam Milne should they want to introduce an overseas fast bowler when they defend.

RR also made a direct swap between veteran legspinner Ravi Bishnoi and the rookie Yash Raj Punja. It gave Bishnoi a chance to correct his figures after Punja doing better on economy even though he has played just two games.

Rajasthan Royals: 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, 3 Dhruv Jurel (wk), 4 Riyan Parag (capt), 5 Donovan Ferreira, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 Shubham Dubey, 8 Jofra Archer, 9 Ravi Bishnoi, 10 Nandre Burger, 11 Brijesh Sharma

RR bench: Adam Milne, Dasun Shanaka, Ravi Singh, Yash Raj Punja, Tushar Deshpande

Delhi Capitals: 1 KL Rahul (wk), 2 Pathum Nissanka, 3 Sameer Rizvi, 4 Tristan Stubbs, 5 Nitish Rana, 6 Axar Patel (capt), 7 Ashutosh Sharma, 8 Kyle Jamieson, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 T Natarajan

DC bench: Vipraj Nigam, Karun Nair, Abhishek Porel, Auqib Nabi, David Miller