IPL: Calm Buttler, flamboyant Jaiswal take RR to 199/4 against DC
Guwahati, Apr 8: Yashasvi Jaiswal reaffirmed his status as the brightest talent among India's gen-next batters with a superb 60 while Jos Buttler showed no signs of finger pain en route a chiselled 79 in Rajasthan Royals' challenging 199 for four against Delhi Capitals in their IPL match here on Saturday.
Jaiswal hammered a hapless Khaleel Ahmed (0/31 in 2 overs) into submission by crunching five boundaries in the opening over, his 31-ball innings laying the foundation before Buttler finished with flourish. The English swashbuckler faced 51 balls.
The fate of DC bowlers could have been sealed in first six overs, which yielded 68 runs along with 14 boundaries, but Kuldeep Yadav (1/31 in 4 overs), Mukesh Kumar (2/36 in 4 overs) and Rovman Powell (1/18 in 2 overs) did well to control the damage to some extent at the back-end.
The total on this track would be considered a par score taking the pitch into account as 220 looked possible during the first 10 overs.
Khaleel literally lost both line and length and looked bruised as Jaiswal inflicted one humiliation after another on him during those couple of overs. Khaleel, in his career, has never had three consistent games on trot and Saturday was another such day.
Anrich Nortje (0/44 in 4 overs), DC's big bowling hope seemed to have had too much on his plate, as the onslaught at the other end did affect him as he also went for a flurry of boundaries, including one over the bowler's head.
Such was David Warner's helplessness that he had to ignore that Axar Patel's (0/38 in 4 overs) match-up against left-handers isn't great, and he was promptly smashed for three boundaries in his very first over.
The 50 came in the fourth over and 100 in the 10th even as Jaiswal completed a 25-ball half-century, his fifth over three editions of the tournament.
Seeing Axar's plight, his spin twin Kuldeep, also started bowling quick and flat which resulted in half-trackers, which were promptly punished.
It was Mukesh Kumar, who finally induced a mis-timed pull from Jaiswal which ballooned up and resulted in an easy return catch.
The confidence of Mukesh rubbed off on Kuldeep, who in his second over started giving the ball more air and floated one out of Sanju Samson's (0) hitting radar. Samson's ugly heave was taken by Nortje at long on.
Riyan Parag (7) had another failure, this time castled by Powell but Buttler after a quiet period in the middle overs conjured a 49-run stand with Shimton Hetmyer (39 not out off 21 balls) to take his team to a par score.
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Rickelton's ton in vain as SRH beat MI by 6 wickets
Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.
MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.
Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).
