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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We were never really close friends: Neeraj Chopra on Arshad Nadeem
Doha, May 15 (PTI): Seeking to set the record straight, star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra on Thursday clarified that he and Arshad Nadeem were never really close friends and said "things won't be the same" after the recent India-Pakistan conflict.
In the aftermath of last month's Pahalgam terror attack, the decorated athlete and his family were bombarded with abuse on social media for inviting Pakistan's Nadeem to the now-postponed NC Classic in Bengaluru.
On the eve of the Diamond League here, the two-time Olympic medallist and reigning world champion put things in perspective when asked about his off-field equation with Nadeem, who won the gold medal in the Paris Games last year after the Indian finished at the top of the podium in the Tokyo edition in 2021..
"First I would like to clarify that I don't have very strong relationship (with Nadeem), we were never really close friends or something. But, because of this (tensions on the Indo-Pak border), it will not be like before. But if someone talks to me respectfully I reciprocate the respect," Chopra told reporters during a press conference.
"Yes, as an athlete we have to talk, I have some good friends from the athlete community from all round the world, not only in javelin throw, but also other events. If somebody talks to me respectfully, I will also talk to him with full respect..
"Javelin is a very small community and everyone is competing for their country and everyone wants to give their best.".
The Paris Games silver-winning star from Haryana had earlier said he was deeply hurt to see his and his family's integrity being questioned in abusive social media posts after an invitation was extended to Nadeem to compete in the tournament held in his honour.
Chopra had then clarified that invites for NC Classic were sent out a day before the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed by terrorists with links to Pakistan..
