IPL 2022: Jos Buttler’s opening blitz fells Mumbai Indians

Jos Buttler’s century helped Rajasthan Royals post 193, which was 23 runs too many for Mumbai Indians against the quality of Trent Boult, R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal.

How’s the Jos.. high, very high sir!
A deadly display of batting Jos Buttler, just like we all expect him to do. First century of IPL 2022. Heart goes out for for the bowlers who have to bowl him in such scorching heat. #MIvsRR pic.twitter.com/tqKu16Ayjr
— Amit Mishra (@MishiAmit) April 2, 2022
Buttler thumps Mumbai again
Jos Buttler now averages 70 in eight games against Mumbai Indians at a strike-rate of 155. In 24 games for the franchise half a decade ago, he averaged 25 and struck at 146. On Saturday afternoon, it was a case of Buttler being intent on making the most of the shorter boundary, and MI trying for the most part to deny him, but succeeding only in patches.
The left-arm seamers Tymal Mills and Daniel Sams bowled all their eight overs from the pavilion end, their natural angle heading away from the right-hander, at least theoretically forcing Buttler to play towards the longer boundary. And Jasprit Bumrah was close to unhittable.
But Buttler at his best in this format is a thinker and executioner combined at warp speed. Deep into his knock, a rare full toss from Bumrah would be placed for four between point and third man on the longer boundary with minimal use of power and acute awareness of the field settings. When Sams went too far outside off trying to prevent the hit to the closer rope, Buttler neatly tapped him square for four to the dant rope.
The brutal beauty of his hitting burst to life against Basil Thampi in the fourth over. A sequence of four, six, six, four, six later, Thampi had been hit out of the game with 26 runs in what would be his only over. All the blows were to the shorter side in the arc between cow corner and the sightscreen.
Buttler stood on off stump with his slightly open stance. His trigger movement, instead of any shuffling or back-and-across, appeared to coil and ensconce him further into the stable base of the crease, from where he uncoiled himself mercilessly on the ball.
A late unwrapping of the forearms and wrs sent Thampi’s slot offerings repeatedly out of sight.
Thampi tried the yorker, but missed, and was launched for a dead-straight four. He tried denying pace late in the over, but then Buttler was sending everything out of the ground. There wasn’t any obvious attempt to deny Buttler a go at the nearer boundary, but then, it was harder for a right-armer, and especially one who was being ruthlessly taken apart.

Three overs of mayhem
Apart from Thampi, M Ashwin (21 in the 11th) and Kieron Pollard (26 in the 17th) also conceded more than 20 in an over. Buttler and Sanju Samson went after M Ashwin, and Shimron Hetmyer (35 off 14) handed Pollard (1/46) his most expensive analysis in the IPL, beating the 1/45 at the same ground against Chennai Super Kings in the 2010 IPL final.
But MI gave away only 120 in the other 17 overs. Barring the Thampi over, RR managed only 22 in the rest of the powerplay. And they were denied a strong finish Bumrah and Mills, with just 11 coming in the last two overs. Buttler slowed down too – probably partly due to the heat and humidity and partly as he was off strike for a while – and scored just five off his last ten deliveries. Buttler himself didn’t sound very pleased during the innings break.
“I’m a bit nervous as it is hard to tell if it is a good score or not with the short boundary one side. I got frustrated towards the end as I slowed down,” Buttler said.
“I couldn’t get the ball away as I would have liked and that’s why I feel we could have got a few more. But we would have taken (a target of) 194 at the start.”

Chase fails after Varma exit
Even in MI’s opener against Delhi Capitals, young Tilak Varma had impressed with the crisp decisiveness in his hitting. The former India Under-19 left-hander gave further notice of his talent with 61 off 33. Varma’s followthrough is high and firm, he commits to his strokes fully and also maintains his hitting shape quite well, particularly for someone only 19. When he reverse-swept R Ashwin for six, MI needed 59 off 35 with seven wickets remaining. But R Ashwin tossed up the next one and spun it into off stump past Varma’s attempted slog-sweep.
Yuzvendra Chahal then effectively shut MI out with the wickets of Tim David and Sams in successive balls in the 16th over.
He would have made it a hat-trick had substitute Karun Nair not dropped M Ashwin at slip. Pollard was left with too much to do against a quality attack with no support at the other end, and a tame 22 off 24 showed it was just not his evening.
After Trent Boult was done, Prasidh Krishna delivered an excellent 19th over considering he was running in against Pollard and his fearsome reputation.
Brief Scores: Rajasthan Royals: 193 for 8 in 20 overs (Jos Buttler 100, Shimron Hetmyer 35, Sanju Samson 30; Jasprit Bumrah 3/17) bt Mumbai Indians: 170 for 8 in 20 overs (Tilak Verma 61, Ishan Kishan 54; Yuzvendra Chahal 2/26, Navdeep Saini 2/36)