IPL 2021: Buttler ton sets up RR’s 55-run win over SRH

Jos Buttler notched his maiden Indian Premier League century, with Chris Morris and Mustafizur Rahman taking three wickets each as the Rajasthan Royals defeated the Sunrisers Hyderabad by 55 runs at Delhi’s Arun Jaitley Stadium on Sunday. 

The win was Rajasthan’s third of the season, lifting them up to fifth in the points table, above the Punjab Kings who take on the Delhi Capitals later today. 

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Meanwhile, the Sunrisers Hyderabad languish at the bottom of the table with just one win from their seven games so far. Desperate measures, including replacing David Warner with Kane Williamson as skipper and dropping the Australian from the squad altogether, did not pay off for SRH as their lacklusture batting unit managed just 165 runs while chasing a mammoth 221-run target. 

After Williamson won the toss and opted to chase, SRH got an early breakthrough with the wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal. However, Buttler and skipper Sanju Samson dug in for a 150-run partnership from 82 balls to propel Rajasthan to an imposing total. 

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Samson (48) fell just short of his 14th IPL fifty, with Buttler bowled by Sandeep Sharma before David Miller smashed a maximum off the last delivery for the perfect end to their innings. 

With Warner dropped, Manish Pandey was promoted to open the innings for SRH along with Jonny Bairstow and the duo started well, scoring 57 runs in the powerplay overs before the latter was bowled by Rahman. 

Wickets kept tumbling in regular intervals since then, with Rahul Tewatia and Kartik Tyagi getting the key wickets of Bairstow and Williamson, to take away any chances of a heroic chase.