Jos Buttler can do no wrong in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022. On Tuesday, in the Qualifier 1 against Gujarat Titans, the Rajasthan Royals opener scored 89 off just 56 balls to help his team reach 188/6 in 20 overs at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. He hit 12 fours and two sixes en route to complete 700 runs in the ongoing edition of the IPL. In 15 matches, he has scored 718 runs so far. He is the sixth batter to score over 700 run in a single edition of the IPL.
He also reached another milestone during the course of the innings. When he reached the score of 36, he became the third Englishman after Alex Hales and Luke Wright to reach the 8000-run mark in T20s. Buttler is also just one century away from equalling Virat Kohli‘s record of most centuries in a single IPL season. Kohli had hit 4 in the 2016 season and Buttler is on three this year.
Against GT, Buttler enjoyed copious amount of luck and displayed a fair bit of pluck during an innings of 89. The Orange Cap-holder Buttler, who had failed to get his act together in the second-half of the season, got off to a slow start but made full use of couple of dropped catches during his 56-ball knock studded with 12 fours and two sixes.
Buttler, who now has 718 runs in 15 games, scored 39 off his first 38 balls and then smacked another 50 off his next 18 deliveries faced.
Buttler was also fortunate to get two reprieves first on 43 when Hardik Pandya slipped to miss a sitter, and then Rashid Khan grassed him on 69.
He then took on Alzarri Joseph smashing three boundaries in an over to accelerate his scoring before getting run-out in the final over.
First up, it was skipper Sanju Samson swagger that was on full display as the Royals skipper, seemingly hurt by the latest selections snub, responded in style with a 26-ball 47 (5×4, 3×6).
At a time when Buttler struggled to get going, the wicketkeeper-batter dealt in boundaries in his entertaining powerplay display.
Samson shared 68-run stand with Buttler, of which 47 came off the former’s blade that summed up the domination from the Royals skipper after they were put in.
He looked ominous from the first ball itself, when he lofted Dayal over long-on for an effortless six.
Titans pace duo of Mohammed Shami and Alzarri Joseph struggled with their line and lengths as Sanju made full use of that to take the score to 55/1 in six overs.
Just when they were looking to go out of control, none other than the wily Afghan spinner put on the brakes, coming into bowl after the power-play.
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With the ball gripping on the dry surface, Rashid cleverly used his variations against his ‘bunny’ Buttler as the Englishman struggled to rotate the strike.
He conceded just two runs from the second over that seemingly put pressure on Sanju to take on Sai Kishore in the next over as he perished to a flighted delivery.
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