Rajasthan Royals 222 for 2 (Buttler 116, Padikkal 54, Samson 46*) beat Delhi Capitals 207 for 8 (Pant 44, Prasidh 3-22) by 15 runs
Buttler began looking unable to get bat on ball. His first 11 runs took 14 balls, eight of them off edges. By the time he was done, though, the opposition captain Rishabh Pant didn’t look happy with his bowlers, the bowlers didn’t look happy with the fielders, and the fielders looked sick of the leather hunt. Buttler ended with 116 in 65 balls, hitting nine sixes, one of them 107metres long.
Rajasthan Royals lost their sixth toss in seven matches, the joint-worst luck at the toss, but that was the last thing they lost as Buttler’s third century of the season set them up for the highest score of this IPL, 222, which they defended eventually comfortably.
It came down to 36 required off the final over, and Rovman Powell hit the first three for sixes. The third of those was a high full toss. The batter and the Capitals dugout immediately remonstrated to get a no-ball call, but it wasn’t called on the field. Then the dugout stopped play, insisting on the third umpire’s intervention, but the playing conditions allow the third umpire to come in only if it is a foot-fault no-ball or if there has been a dismissal off the ball. Obed McCoy made a comeback after the break to bowl a dot and get Powell off the last ball.
A circumspect start
You wouldn’t have guessed from the start what carnage we were about to witness. Khaleel Ahmed troubled him with his left-arm angle and also some seam movement, and Buttler edged away two boundaries in the first over. Shardul Thakur followed it with a maiden, and Lalit Yadav snuck in a boundary-less over of part-time offspin.
Full report to follow…
Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
Source: ESPN Crickinfo