Jos Buttler’s scintillating second IPL century was complemented beautifully by ‘five-star’ Yuzvendra Chahal, who laid his net with a hat-trick as Rajasthan Royals won a high-scoring thriller by 7 runs against Kolkata Knight Riders on Monday. Buttler’s 103 from 61 balls came with nine fours and five sixes as Royals posted 217 for five, but KKR captain Shreyas Iyer (85 from 51 balls) kept the company of Aaron Finch (58 off 28 balls). I made a match of it.
However, it was the 17th over when Chahal (5/40 in 4 overs) dismissed Venkatesh Iyer on his first ball and then Shreyas, Shivam Mavi and Pat Cummins on the 4th, 5th and 6th balls to reverse the match completely. gave.
180 for 4, it turns out to be 180 for eight but Umesh Yadav had other ideas. He hit two sixes and a four in the 18th over of Trent Boult and brought the equation down to 18 in the last two overs.
With 11 runs needed off the last six balls, West Indies left-arm pacer Obed McCoy kept his cool to bring Sheldon Jackson and Umesh into the Royals camp.
It was perhaps the best IPL match of the current season, marking the 14th anniversary of the most-watched T20 league in world cricket.
And it couldn’t have been a more fitting day for Butler to score a scintillating century when rival coach Brendon McCullum smashed 158 off 73 balls to start the league in 2008.
Some of Butler’s shots were out of the ordinary, including a shot from Umesh (0/44 in 4 overs), which landed on the adjacent tennis court of the Cricket Club of India.
When he was finally dismissed trying to hook Pat Cummins (1/50 in four overs), the Royals had crossed the 180-run mark and by then the Australian Test captain had been hit for seven fours and a six. , the dashing England keeper-batsman by most of them.
Buttler added 97 runs for the opening wicket with Devdutt Padikkal (24 off 18 balls), who faced only three overs in the first 10 overs.
After Padikkal’s departure, Buttler was joined by skipper Sanju Samson (38 off 19 balls), who was equally devastating in the second wicket stand of 67 runs in just 5.4 overs.
Apart from Sunil Narine (2/21 in four overs), none of the KKR bowlers looked to be a threat to Buttler, who is walking away from the Orange Cap with a total of 375 runs in six matches so far.
Varun Chakravarthy (0/30 in 2 overs) went from bad to worse during the season as his balls had neither bite nor suspense and it was like cannon fodder on Brabourne’s batting beauty.
The fifth bowling option proved to be a nightmare as Andre Russell (0/29 in 2 overs) fulfilled Chakraborty’s quota as he conceded 59 runs in 4 overs overall.
Shivam Mavi (1/3 in 4 overs) and Umesh got off to a good start during the first two overs, mainly due to Padikkal’s poor performance.
However, showing his cleverness in cricket, Padikkal delivered a heavy strike to Butler and it changed course from the third over of the match.
Umesh, who had started the tournament on a bright note, came back to his old self of being uncertain as Butler hit him for fours and sixes in successive deliveries.
Then the floodgates opened as he literally messed with Chakraborty, which he turned back and hit a six, giving him enough time to send him into orbit.
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If there had been a wide yorker, he would have gone past third-man, the short delivery was pulled and the feet were tucked behind the square.
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