IPL 2018: Jos Buttler Wins Admiration With His Power-Hitting vs Delhi Daredevils
Jos Buttler gave a perfect start to Rajasthan Royals (RR) chasing a big 151-run target against Delhi Daredevils (DD) in a rain-truncated Indian Premier League match on Wednesday. Buttler went berserk and hit the Delhi bowlers mercilessly all over the park to bring up Rajasthan’s 50 in just 19 balls in the company of D’Arcy Short (44 off 24), who played the perfect second fiddle to the Englishman. Buttler meted out special treatment to young pacer Avesh Khan, smashing him thrice over the boundary as he got to his individual 50 off just 18 deliveries as the home crowd began to lose hopes of a win. Leg-spinner Amit Mishra, however, brought the smiles back to the home fans, who stayed well past midnight braving heavy rain, by getting Buttler stumped with a top-spinner.
Buttler’s innings took the Internet by storm and twitterati started posting comments following his power-hitting.
After Buttler’s wicket, DD’s Trent Boult jolted the visitors with the quick wickets of Sanju Samson (3) and Ben Stokes (1) even as Glenn Maxwell ended Short’s resistance to reduce Rajasthan to 118/4. With 33 needed off 14 balls, Krishnappa Gowtham (18 not out) and Rahul Tripathi (9) failed to take the visitors home in what turned out to be a nail-biting affair towards the end.
Earlier, Rishabh Pant (69 off 29 balls; 4×7, 6×5) and captain Shreyas Iyer (50 off 35; 4×3, 6×3) capitalised on a brilliant start by teenaged sensation Prithvi Shaw (47 off 25 balls; 4×4, 6×4) as Delhi posted 196/6 in 17.1 overs.
RR have won only three matches out of eight they have played so far and are at the seventh place on the IPL 2018 points table.
Brief Scores: Delhi Daredevils 196/6 (Rishabh Pant 69, Shreyas Iyer 50, Prithvi Shaw 47; Jaydev Unadkat 3/46) beat Rajasthan Royals 146/5 (Jos Buttler 67, D’Arcy Short 44; Trent Boult 2/26) by 4 runs by D/L method.
