Butler misses out on a century, Rajasthan sets Hyderabad a target of 215
On the basis of Jos Buttler’s (95 runs in 59 balls) aggressive innings, Rajasthan Royals scored a big score of 214 for two against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League (IPL) T20 match here on Sunday. Butler hit 10 fours and four sixes in his innings, including 54 in 30 balls for the first wicket with Yashasvi Jaiswal (35 off 18 balls) and then with captain Sanju Samson (66 not out in 38 balls) for the second wicket. Shared a partnership of 138 runs in 81 balls. Samson hit four fours and five sixes during his fourth consecutive half-century innings against Hyderabad.
Jaiswal once again got off to a brisk start after winning the toss and electing to bat. He hit a total of five fours and two sixes in the first five overs against Bhuvneshwar Kumar (44 for one) and Marco Jansson (44 for one). However, he got out on the last ball of the fifth over. Samson, who came to the crease, continued his aggressive batting and welcomed Mayank Markandeya for two consecutive sixes in the ninth over. Butler, who scored 20 runs in the first 20 balls, opened his hand by hitting a six in the same over.
The England batsman, who has been struggling to score runs in the last few matches, also showed signs of coming back in form by hitting sixes and fours against Abhishek Sharma. Due to this, the team’s score became 107 runs for one wicket after 10 overs. He hit his second six against debutant Vivrant Sharma. Butler completed a century partnership with Samson in the 14th over after hitting consecutive fours against Jansen to take the team’s score to 150. Both then hit sixes against Markandeya in the 16th over. In the next over, Butler hit three fours against Bhuvneshwar but was caught lbw against the bowler in the 19th over. Samson hit a four against Natarajan in the last over to take the team past 200 runs. He took the team to 214 runs by hitting sixes and fours in the last two balls. Markandeya took 51 runs in his four overs.
