Rajasthan Royals (RR) opener Jos Buttler has announced his arrival in IPL 2022 with a blazing hundred against Mumbai Indians (MI) at the DY Patil Sports Academy. He reached the landmark in 66 deliveries which is also the first in this year’s IPL.
Incidentally, asked to bat first, Rajasthan lost Yashasvi Jaiswal in the third over. Mumbai bowled some tight line and length to contain the RR batters before Jasprit Bumrah got the better Rajasthan opener.
But Jos Buttler cut loosed in the fourth over from Basil Thampi taking him to the cleaners. The English wicket-keeper batsman struck three sixes and two boundaries to accumulate 26 runs off the over to shift the momentum.
Since then, there was no stopping Buttler, who came hard at the Mumbai bowlers. He reached 50 from 32 balls before scoring another 50 in another 34 balls. In the process, Jos Buttler has completed 350 runs against Mumbai Indians at an average of 89.25 and at a strike rate of almost 165.
Meanwhile, the fans were in awe of Jos Buttler’s clean hitting and showered praise on the hard-hitting batter.
Here are some of the reactions:
Will @josbuttler always score big against MI? #MIvRR #IPL2022 pic.twitter.com/S3hV4TRHGo
— Wasim Jaffer (@WasimJaffer14) April 2, 2022
How good is jos butler 🏏 #smilingassassin
— Shreevats goswami (@shreevats1) April 2, 2022
Jos The Boss! Simply sensational#IPL2022 #MIvRR
— Subhayan Chakraborty (@CricSubhayan) April 2, 2022
Risk-free cricket and still very effective, that’s how Jos Buttler was. No wonder he is one of the best white-ball cricketer at the moment. @rajasthanroyals #RRvsMI #MIvsRR
— Rahul Rawat (@rawatrahul9) April 2, 2022
Jos Buttler Smashed Umran Malik for 21 runs in the game vs SRH and now smashed Basil Thampi for 26 runs in this match vs MI. Both in the 4th over of the Powerplay. Strategy to put the relatively inexperienced bowlers under pressure working really well for him. #MIvRR
— Prasenjit Dey (@CricPrasen) April 2, 2022
Buttler showing why he’s the best around. He knows who he needs to see off and who to absolutely destroy. Then when he’s fully in the zone he’ll destroy the guy he saw off too. Genius
— Dave (@CricketDave27) April 2, 2022
Buttler's record vs MI gets insane every year, unreal consistency at this.
— Prashanth S (@ps_it_is) April 2, 2022
What an inside out six by Buttler. M Ashwin rightly pulled the length back seeing Buttler make room, but he's batting so well that he just extended his arms and still middled it for a six.
What a batter. Makes batting look so easy, and that too against a negative match up for
— Gurkirat Singh Gill (@gurkiratsgill) April 2, 2022
Jos Buttler eventually managed got out after reaching the three-figure mark off 68 balls, which included 11 boundaries and five towering sixes.
Rajasthan Royals post 193 runs riding on Jos Buttler century
While Buttler continued the onslaught from one end, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Devdutt Padikkal got out from the other end. But Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson forged a good partnership alongside Jos Buttler to revive the innings.
Shimron Hetmyer also played a decent hand chipping with a 14-ball 35 runs innings. However, Mumbai Indians bounced back in the final two overs to contain Rajasthan Royals to 193 runs.
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