Buttler bats in style as RR win a thriller
Opener’s 116, his third century of the season, helps Royals notch up a 15-run victory
MUMBAI: There was brief drama in the final over of Delhi Capitals’ run chase when Rovman Powell hit three consecutive sixes off Obed McCoy’s first three balls, but Rajasthan Royals held their nerve to close out a 15-run win on Friday. Rajasthan’s win was set up by Jos Buttler’s century. In reply to Rajasthan’s total of 222/2, Delhi Capitals finished on 207/8.
Khaleel Ahmed caused Buttler a few problems in the very first over of the match as the Englishman struggled with away-going deliveries. He was lucky not to edge one behind the wicket, but once he emerged unscathed from that opening over, there was total carnage.
When Ahmed came on to bowl again in the last over of the powerplay, Buttler cleared his front leg to clatter his first ball for six towards the deep midwicket region. Buttler hit another six in that over to collect 15 runs. The left-arm pacer could never recover from that onslaught as Delhi Capitals struggled to come up with a strategy to stop Buttler on a belter of a pitch at the Wankhede Stadium.
By the time Buttler was done, he had scored 116 off 66 balls with the help of nine fours and nine sixes. It was Buttler’s third century of this season—second on the trot—and fourth overall in the IPL. His previous tons this year came against Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders.
It was also his fastest among the three tons as he took just 57 balls to reach the mark. He faced 59 balls to reach his century against KKR and 66 balls against MI. He now has scored 491 runs in seven matches this season at a strike rate of 161. The next best is KL Rahul with 265 runs from seven games.
DC had a window of an opportunity in the 13th over when Buttler hit a half-tracker from Lalit Yadav to deep midwicket, but Shardul Thakur misjudged the trajectory and trotted in instead of staying on the boundary. The ball sailed over him for a six and the chance was squandered. Buttler was on 60 off 43 balls at that point and went on to add another 56 off 23 balls thereafter.
No one was shown mercy, not even the DC spin troika of Kuldeep Yadav (3-0-40-0), Lalit Yadav (4-0-41-0) and Axar Patel (2-0-21-0), each of them conceding more than 10 runs per over.
While Buttler went on a rampage, it gave Devdutt Padikkal an opportunity to get his eye in. Once set, he too launched into the DC bowlers. He scored 54 off 34 balls—his first half-century of this edition—and along with Buttler shared a first-wicket stand of 155 runs in just 91 balls.