IPL: Jos Buttler smashes half-century as Rajasthan Royals beat Sunrisers Hyderabad in opening game | Cricket News
Jos Buttler scored a half-century as the Rajasthan Royals started their IPL campaign with a resounding 72-run victory over the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
England’s white-ball captain smashed 54 off 22 balls inside the batting powerplay, while Yashavi Jaiswal (54) and Sanju Samson (55) also scored half-centuries as Rajasthan posted 203-5.
The Sunrisers finished on a disappointing 131-8, with Trent Boult (2-21) taking two wickets in the first over and Yuzvendra Chahal (4-17) running through the middle order, claiming the key wickets of Harry Brook (13) and Mayank Agarwal (27).
Chahal brought up 170 IPL wickets – the joint second-most with Sri Lankan Lasith Malinga – when Adil Rashid was stumped, and he then bowled Bhuvneshwar Kumar with a googly.
“We knew 200 was a good score on this wicket,” Chahal said.
“My plan was to vary my pace and bowl stump to stump. It is always my strength. I am doing nothing new and I am just backing my strengths.”
At one stage, it looked like the Sunrisers would be bowled out for less than 100, but Abdul Samad remained unbeaten on a run-a-ball 32 and Umran Malik played a cameo of 19 not out.
The Rajasthan Royals restricted the Sunrisers Hyderabad to just 131 runs
Earlier, Buttler hit seven boundaries and three sixes in a whirlwind innings inside the first six overs before he played onto Afghanistan’s Fazalhaq Farooqi as Rajasthan stormed to 122-1 in the first half of their batting innings.
Hyderabad bounced back despite Jaiswal and Samson cracking fine half-centuries, with fast bowler Thangarasu Natarajan (2-23) stemming the flow of runs and Farooqi also making good in his return spell to finish with 2-41.
Farooqi broke the half-century stand between Jaiswal and Samson when he had the former caught at deep square leg and Natarajan deceived Samson with a slower delivery in the penultimate over.
“It is the first match of the season and there is a lot to improve,” Hyderabad skipper Kumar said after the fast bowler conceded 36 runs in his three overs against Buttler’s onslaught.
“We need to execute our plans and hopefully we will get better.”
