Jos Buttler braved cramps to rustle up a tempestuous unbeaten 97 to information Gujarat Titans to an exquisite seven-wicket win over Delhi Capitals right here on Saturday (April 19, 2025).
After the spectacular Prasidh Krishna-led (4/41) Gujarat pacers restricted Delhi to 203/8, the house facet paced their chase impeccably to attain 204/3 in 19.2 overs as Buttler performed the protagonist position throughout his 54-ball innings.
There had been mini-hiccups for the Titans within the type of early dismissals of skipper Shubhman Gill and B. Sai Sudharsan (36), who helped Buttler add 60 runs for the second wicket.
But Buttler batted round them with collectedness within the firm of Rutherford (43) till the left-hander was dismissed within the penultimate over.
The English-West Indian pair milked 119 runs for the third wicket that pushed GT nearer to the shore.
Buttler’s batting is aesthetically violent as he exploited a pitch on which the ball got here fluently onto the bat. The Somerset man has all of the photographs within the e book however performs them within the calmest of how.
Instead of shifting across the crease like trendy T20 batters, Buttler typically depends on a robust physique core and fast fingers to unfurl his photographs.
There was a telltale instance of his strategies when he biffed Mitchell Starc for 5 boundaries in a row within the fifteenth over.
Buttler didn’t transfer in direction of the ball however reached out with toes firmly rooted on the bottom because the ball sped to the ropes between covers and level areas.
On the opposite hand, Rutherford’s batting was all about brute energy, as he confirmed whereas pulling pacer Mohit Sharma for 2 consecutive sixes as GT motored on.
There was no in style Buttler hundred as Rahul Tewatia completed off the match with a six and 4 off Starc with 4 balls to spare.
The outcome additionally helped the Titans to transfer to the highest of the desk with 10 factors, the identical as Delhi, however the former has a greater internet run price of 0.98 towards their opponent’s 0.58.
Earlier, Gujarat bowlers led by Prasidh, produced a disciplined effort to stifle the Delhi batting unit.
It began from the highest order. Abhishek Porel (23) began nicely, hammering pacer Mohammed Siraj for 16 runs within the first over.
The barrage included two fours and a six, and he regarded set for a much bigger rating. But he perished within the subsequent over to Arshad Khan, clubbing his over-pitched supply straight to Siraj at mid-on.
Okay.L. Rahul (28, 14b) and Karun Nair (31, 18b) added 35 runs for the second wicket and performed some delectable photographs.
Rahul’s six over long-on off Siraj and Karun’s pick-up flick for a six off Arshad had been merely fantastic.
But Prasidh trapped his Karnataka teammate Rahul with a searing yorker that pinged his again foot to break the promising alliance.
Karun tried to ramp Prasidh however Arshad took a straightforward catch at broad third man as DC slipped to 93 for 3 regardless of consuming solely 9 overs.
The guests then weaved one other good stand of 53 runs by means of Tristan Stubbs (31) and Axar Patel (39) for the fifth wicket.
Stubbs’s cowl drives off Prasidh that raced to the fence testified his grace and energy.
Just because the South African, who was dropped on 30 by Rashid Khan off his personal bowling, was gaining in confidence, he selected to play a reverse paddle off Siraj solely to be caught by Prasidh at quick third man.
The Karnataka pacer returned to eliminate Axar as he continued to dig the ball into the pitch to get some bounce and grip to hold the batters guessing.
Ashutosh Sharma (37, 19b) performed some beefy photographs as they crossed the 200-run mark.
Published – April 19, 2025 08:19 pm IST
