Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson stated that it is always a pleasure to bat with talisman batsman Jos Buttler as the inaugural champions defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by a massive margin of 55 runs at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on Sunday.
Buttler, who was struggling to find form in the ongoing season, got back to his best as he scored his maiden IPL hundred. The right-hander scored a blistering knock of 124 runs off just 64 balls as he took the game away from the Orange Army. Buttler took a bit of time in the initial stage of the innings but then changed gears to take the attack against the opposition.
Buttler timed the ball to perfect and batted at his best. On the other hand, Sanju Samson also played a crucial role as he scored 48 from 33 balls. Buttler and Samson added a fine alliance of 150 runs as the former did the bulk of the scoring whereas the latter played the role of a the second fiddle.
Samson showed guile as he gave the strike to Buttler, who was striking the ball cleanly at the other end. Buttler scored 11 fours and eight sixes and scored his runs at a splendid strike rate of 193.75. The right-hander was able to find the gaps to perfection and punished the SRH bowlers if they were slightly off-target.
Sanju Samson said in the post-match presentation, “Always a pleasure to bat with Jos (Buttler). Enjoyed the partnership. Whenever he goes on we win games. Having Jos in good frame of mind is great news for us. It was a clinical performance and we knew that they have a good line-up, so just sticking to our plans and executing pleased me the most. Our bowlers have been doing really well for the last 5-6 games, proud of them. Happy to lead a team with special bowlers in the team. If you look at the results, we haven’t won enough but we have been playing good cricket. IPL is a funny tournament, the results are just here and there. Just one person, one ball, one over can change everything. So just keep telling your players that they are doing well”.
Jos Buttler was at his sublime best and helped RR post a above-par score of 220 runs. The right-hander had scored only 132 runs in the first six matches of the tournament but he was able to turn the tables against SRH as he showed no mercy to the opposition’s bowlers.
RR will next CSK at the same venue on 5th of May.