Delhi's win largely came on the back of a splendid bowling display which helped Iyed-led team restrict the Royals to 148-8 after setting them a challenging 162-run target.
The show stopper for Delhi Capitals was their tearaway South African speedster Anrich Nortje who bowled a fiery spell to return with figures of 2 for 33 and win the Man of the Match. Nortje scalped two major wickets by clean bowling opener Jos Buttler and Robin Uttappa with two cracking deliveries.
Nortje who has been consistently bowling with red hot pace in the late 140s to early 150s all through the IPL 2020 season, shattered the bowling record books by bowling the fastest ball ever in IPL history.
Nortje racked up serious pace on the speed gun with a thunderbolt of a delivery to RR opener Jos Buttler which clocked a whopping 156 kmp/h. The South African pace ace broke his own record of the fastest delivery in the IPL as he has previously bowled 155.21 kmph.
It is notable that Nortje’s South Africa teammate Dale Steyn held the record for the fastest delivery in the IPL for a very long time after he bowled a delivery at 154.5 kph for the now defunct Deccan Chargers.
After the match, Nortje who bagged the man of the match, expressed his surprise over his record breaking delivery to Jos Buttler.
“Really? No idea. Hearing it for the first time,” Nortje replied after the match on being asked about his record-breaking delivery. “[I’ve] been feeling it the last few days. Nice to see some results.
Buttler played them really well. Maybe I was a touch too full. Didn’t expect him to go for a six first ball. Maybe he was expecting something else off that delivery. Stuck to my strength and paid off. Didn’t expect the second ramp.
Here are the to ten fastest balls bowled in IPL 2020 so far:
Anrich Nortje (DC) - 156.2 Anrich Nortje (DC) - 155.2 Anrich Nortje (DC) - 154.7 Anrich Nortje (DC) - 153.72 Jofra Archer (RR) - 153.62 Jofra Archer (RR) - 153.36 Jofra Archer (RR) - 153.23 Jofra Archer (RR) - 152.55 Anrich Nortje (DC) - 152.54