'No.1 white-ball player in the world' - A Jos Buttler special knocks RCB out as RR set finals date with GT

Rajat Patidar scored a fifty with the bat but it was not enough for his team.

By Aditya Gajanan Kukalyekar verified

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Jos Buttler
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Jos Buttler. (Photo Source: IPL/BCCI)

Champions step up in the crunch situations! Yes, that is what Jos Buttler did for Rajasthan Royals in Ahmedabad. He lit up Narendra Modi stadium with his excellent hitting abilities and toyed with the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) bowlers to take his team home in the 158-run chase with a scintillating ton, his fourth of the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). RR will now face Gujarat Titans in the final of the season at the same venue, while it was yet another season of ‘what might’ve been’ for RCB.

Earlier, Virat Kohli started with a bang for RCB walking down the wicket against Trent Boult, whacking him for a brilliant six. But Prasidh Krishna got the better of him in the very next over to stun the opposition. Rajat Patidar, the hero of the Eliminator, then came out and yet again batted freely. Once again, he was reprieved early, this time by Riyan Parag. He made the most of the chance and played some brilliant strokes continuing from where he left in the previous game.

Patidar added 70 runs for the second wicket with his skipper Faf du Plessis, before the latter was sent back by Obed McCoy. However, the run-flow didn’t stop as Glenn Maxwell came out and began smashing the ball from the word go. His reverse and switch hits came into play as well, but he got out to a harmless delivery from Trent Boult. Maxwell smacked a leg-side bouncer from the left-arm seamer straight down the throat of the fine leg fielder.

RCB were 111/3 after 14 overs at this stage and this is when things began tilting in favor of the Royals. Patidar got to his half-century but was dismissed on 58 and RCB lost wickets in almost every over. Dinesh Karthik also went back soon which led to the Red Army not getting the finishing kick at the back end of the innings. Krishna and McCoy, who shared six wickets equally between them, bowled superbly at the death to restrict them to just 157 runs for the loss of eight wickets in 20 overs.

A Buttler special knocks RCB out

The 158-run chase can turn out to be tricky for teams, but not when Jos Buttler decides to go bonkers right from the word go. The Englishman and Yashasvi Jaiswal came out with a plan and took RCB bowlers to the cleaners in the powerplay itself. Mohammed Siraj and Shahbaz Ahmed combinedly bowled four overs to concede 66 runs and this is where RCB players seemed to be out of ideas. Buttler continued to play his shots to get to his fifty off just 24 balls and then concentrated on rotating the strike.

He looked determined to take his team home on the night and got support from skipper Sanju Samson after Jaiswal got out. The required run rate was never a problem for the Royals after the brilliant start they got in the powerplay. RCB picked wickets of Samson and Padikkal but they couldn’t remove a rock-like Buttler who was also dropped by Dinesh Karthik after crossing the 50-run mark.

It was only one-way traffic in terms of run-scoring for the Royals and fittingly, Buttler got to his fourth ton of IPL 2022 and then finished the game with a massive six as well. It was a different level batting completely from the Englishman, who didn’t put a foot wrong in the chase. The Royals got home in the 19th over of the innings but the result was a foregone conclusion much before that. Buttler remained unbeaten on 106 off 60 deliveries with 10 fours and six maximums as RR won the game by seven wickets.

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