Jos Buttler scored 79 from 51 balls to lead Rajasthan Royals to a 57-run victory against Delhi Capitals on Saturday.
An opening partnership of 98 from Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal from just 8.3 overs gave the Royals a foundation to build from, eventually setting the Capitals a target of 200.
Three wickets each for Trent Boult and Yuzvendra Chahal then reduced Delhi as they could only muster 142-9 from their 20 overs.
Buttler and Jaiswal set the tone before the latter was caught and bowled by Mukesh Kumar for 60 from just 31 deliveries.
Delhi gave themselves hope of causing a batting collapse as Kuldeep Yadav removed captain Sanju Samson for a duck, before Rovman Powell bowled Riyan Parag for seven to reduce the Royals to 126-3 as the run rate began to slow down.
Buttler continued to keep the scoreboard ticking along with Shimron Hetmyer (39 not out), though, before also being caught and bowled by Mukesh.
Boult dismissed Prithvi Shaw and Manish Pandey for ducks as the Capitals slipped to 0-2 inside the first over of their reply.
After Rilee Rossouw was out for 14, David Warner and Lalit Yadav started to finally allow Delhi to get a foothold in their innings before the latter was bowled by Boult for 38.
Warner started to quickly run out of partners before finally succumbing himself for 65 as the Capitals struggled to ever threaten the target to give the Royals their second win to go top of the Indian Premier League, while Delhi suffered their third loss from three outings.
Buttler storms the Capitals
It was a mature knock from the England white-ball captain, who hit 11 fours and one six, though he did have a lucky moment when he was dropped on 18 by Anrich Nortje.
He briefly sat atop the IPL’s list for most runs in the early stage of this year’s competition (152), only for Warner (158) to overtake him in Delhi’s reply.
Warner landmark no consolation for Delhi
The Australian is the third batsman to score 6,000 runs in IPL history and the fifth to score 2,000 runs for the Capitals in the competition, and is only the second to score 2,000+ runs for two teams (also Sunrisers Hyderabad) after Shikhar Dhawan for the same two teams.
However, the Capitals have won just one IPL game from the last 14 times they have chased a target of 200 or more, which was a seven-wicket win when chasing Gujarat Lions’ score of 208 in May 2017.
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