During the 40th match of the 11th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) between Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) at Jaipur, Rajasthan Royals’ Jos Buttler scored his fourth IPL half-century, the third consecutive of this season.
Earlier Ajinkya Rahane, captain of Rajasthan Royals, had won the toss and chose to field. Rajasthan Royals had included Stuart Binny, Mahipal Lomror and Ish Sodhi into the playing eleven in place of D’Arcy Short, Rahul tripathi and Shreyas Gopal. On the other hand, Kings XI Punjab brought in Akshdeep Nath and Mohit Sharma in place of Mayank Agarwal and Barinder Sran.
The Royals persisted with the in-form Buttler at the top of the order. He was joined by his captain, Rahane, to face the new ball. Buttler went berserk from the word go, scoring a couple of boundaries of Marcus Stoinis to set the ball rolling. Since his promotion to the top of the order, he has looked a wholly different player for the Royals. Counting on his good form, he had made his intentions clear tonight as well.
Ravichandran Ashwin spin in the form of Axar Patel to share the new ball with Stoinis. Buttler hit a four and a six off Patel to not let the left-arm spinner settle in the middle. Despite losing Ajinkya Rahane (9) in the fourth over, Buttler kept the process of run-scoring on.
At the end of the powerplay, Rajasthan Royals had scored 63-1, out of which Buttler had contributed 45* (22). A 200+ strike rate in the powerplay was what was the need of the hour for the hosts. On the third delivery of the eight over, with a single off Ashwin at short fine-leg, Buttler completed his half-century.
However, Buttler slowed down to the dislike of his team post the powerplay. His strike rate post the powerplay had dropped down to 103. On the second delivery of the 17th over, Buttler tried to up the ante by stepping out against Mujeeb Ur Rahman. Completely missing the ball, he was stumped by Lokesh Rahul. He ended up scoring 82 (58) with the help of nine fours and a six.
Watch how Twitterati reacted on his innings:
RR might have missed the trick by not opening Jos Buttler early in the IPL and ECB might be taking some notes now…
— Broken Cricket (@BrokenCricket) May 8, 2018
How it took @rajasthanroyals so long to realise @josbuttler had to open I will never know …. #OnOn #IPL2018
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) May 8, 2018
Jos Buttler once asked to open
18 balls half-century
27 balls half-century— Broken Cricket (@BrokenCricket) May 8, 2018
I cannot believe Rohan Gavaskar can call Binny a batsman at the death overs than Jos Buttler and still get paid for it. "Blessing in disguise" to have him batting instead of Buttler it seems. Dai.
— Vinayakk (@vinayakkm) May 8, 2018
What a innings by @josbuttler 😘😘😘
— Ujjwal Khatri (@UjjwalK54669053) May 8, 2018
#RRvKXIP well played @josbuttler 👏 #HallaBol
— SAHIL SABHARWAL 🇮🇳 (@sahil_sabharwa) May 8, 2018
A third consecutive half century in this year’s @IPL for the @rajasthanroyals! #Hallabol #VIVOIPL #RRvKXIP
Batted, @josbuttler! 🔥👊 pic.twitter.com/hf1TEW6wAF
— Lancashire CCC (@LancsCCC) May 8, 2018
RR sent @josbuttler as Opener
Result = 3 Fifties in 3 games 😎🔥#IPL2018 #RRvKXIP— Bittuu ! (@iTharunG) May 8, 2018
From someone who was struggling to score runs at the beginning of the season, Jos Buttler has hit peak from in the business end of the season.
— Shubh AggarWall (@shubh_chintak) May 8, 2018
Looks like @josbuttler is gonna get his first century! #RRvsKXIP
— Vishnu Rian (@vnair198) May 8, 2018
