IPL 2022: Ton-up Buttler inspires Rajasthan Royals to victory over Mumbai Indians

Just a few months ago, towards the end of last year, Jos Buttler was struggling, like most of his other England teammates, in the Ashes. Cut to the IPL and it seems Jos is the boss again. T20 cricket always brings the best out of him. A consistent performer for his franchise, Buttler’s brilliant batting earned him a century and also laid the platform for Rajasthan Royals’ convincing 23-run win over Mumbai Indians (MI) at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Saturday. The Royals now have four points from two games, while MI are yet to open their account after two losses.

Buoyed by Buttler’s 68-ball 100 and Shimron Hetmyer’s 35 off only 14 balls, the Royals, sent in to bat, put up a solid total of 193/8. They would easily have crossed 200 if not for Jasprit Bumrah (3/17) and Tymal Mills (3/35), who came up with tidy, accurate bowling in the last two overs of the innings. In reply, MI lost captain Rohit Sharma early in the second over off Prasidh Krishna, but Ishan Kishan (54 off 43 balls) and 19-year-old Hyderabad batsman  Tilak Varma (61 off 33 balls) kept the five-time champions very much on track with their enterprising 81-run third-wicket stand. But Trent Boult delivered for the Royals just when required, accounting for Ishan.

Soon after, Ravichandran Ashwin brought his experience into play to finally prevail over the impressive Varma, taking pace off the ball and giving it a little more spin to castle the youngster, who had reverse-swept the senior off-spinner for a big six off the previous ball.  Alongside one of his favourite shots, which is going deeper inside the crease and clearing his front leg to deposit the ball over the leg side, Buttler also picked up cheeky boundaries. It required a Bumrah yorker in the final over of the Royals innings to remove Buttler. But he had already done the damage by then.

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Rajasthan Royals owe it to Jos Buttler service

Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal struck crucial blows in successive overs as Rajasthan Royals won by 23 runs against Mumbai Indians in the ninth match of IPL 2022 at the DY Patil Stadium on Saturday. After Jos Buttler’s 68-ball hundred propelled them to 193/8 in 20 overs, Rajasthan struck hard in the final few overs as Mumbai could manage only 170/8. Fifties from Ishan Kishan and Tilak Varma were not sufficient to deny the 2008 IPL champions their second successive win of the season. Just like Rajasthan, Mumbai lost captain Rohit Sharma and Anmolpreet Singh cheaply in the power-play.

But Kishan, who got an unbeaten 81 against Delhi Capitals, began from where he left off. After getting Mumbai off the mark with a smash through cover off Trent Boult, Kishan hit Navdeep Saini with a pulled six over fine leg, followed by a loft over mid-off on a no-ball and hitting the next ball through the same region. Though Kishan slowed down after the power-play, Varma stepped up to be the aggressor. Varma began by pulling Ashwin between short fine leg and deep backward square leg. The standout shot from the youngster’s innings was his sweetly-timed loft down the ground off Saini.

Varma’s impressive show continued when he ran down the pitch and tonked Chahal over deep mid-wicket for six followed by a four swept through fine leg. Kishan earned a reprieve at 41 when Yashasvi Jaiswal ran across and timed his dive well to take the catch at deep mid-wicket. In his final over, Chahal trapped Tim David lbw with a ripping leg-break and took out Daniel Sams by tempting him to hole out to deep mid-wicket. The leg-spinner missed his hat-trick as Karun Nair spilled a catch at slip. Kieron Pollard whipped Boult for a four and six through leg-side and was given a life at 14 when Jaiswal spilled a simple catch at deep cover.

With 29 needed off the final over, Pollard crunched a four through extra cover off Saini. But the pacer kept calm to bowl four dot balls and got the big-hitter out on the final ball as Buttler fittingly took the catch at deep extra cover.