Rajasthan Royals (RR) star batter Jos Buttler registered an unwanted batting record on Friday, becoming a player with the most ducks in a single season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The batter registered this record during the match against Punjab Kings in Dharamshala. In the match, he was dismissed by Kagiso Rabada for a three-ball duck. This is his fifth duck in this season. There are some batters who have scored four ducks in a single IPL season: Herchelle Gibbs (Deccan Chargers, 2009), Mithun Manhas (Pune Warriors India, 2011), Manish Pandey (Pune Warriors India, 2012), Shikhar Dhawan (Delhi Capitals, 2020), Eoin Morgan (Kolkata Knight Riders, 2021) and Nicholas Pooran (Punjab Kings, 2021).
In the ongoing season, Buttler has scored 392 runs in 14 matches at an average of 28.00 and a strike rate of 139.00, with a total of four half-centuries. His best score this season is 95.
Buttler has faced problems scoring during run chases this year, having scores of 19,0,40,0,0,0 and 0 to his name while chasing. This is a total of 59 runs in seven innings.
This all comes after a dream season in 2022, in which he scored 863 runs in 17 matches with four centuries and four fifties at an average of above 57.
After being put to bat first by RR, PBKS scored 187/5 in their 20 overs. They struggled against RR bowlers initially, losing their four wickets for just 50 runs in 6.3 overs. Then Jitesh Sharma (44 in 28 balls, with three fours and three sixes) and Sam Curran stitched a 64-run stand for the fifth wicket to bring PBKS back into the game. Then in death overs, Curran (49* in 31 balls, with four boundaries and two sixes) and Shahrukh Khan (41* in 23 balls, four boundaries and two sixes) joined forces to up the run rate, taking PBKS to a competitive total. They scored 46 runs in the final two overs.
Navdeep Saini (3/40) was the pick of the bowlers for RR. Trent Boult and Adam Zampa took a wicket each.
In the chase of 188, RR lost Jos Buttler early for a duck, his fifth this season. Then Yashasvi Jaiswal (50 in 36 balls, with eight fours) and Devdutt Padikkal (51 in 30 balls, with four boundaries and three sixes) stitched a 73-run stand for the second wicket, helping RR fight back. Later on, cameos from Shimron Hetmyer (46 in 28 balls, four boundaries and three sixes), Riyan Parag (20 in 12 balls, with one four and two sixes) and Dhruv Jurel (10* in four balls) helped RR clinch a last-over thriller win by four wickets.
Kagiso Rabada (2/40) was the pick of the bowlers for PBKS. Sam Curran, Nathan Ellis, Rahul Chahar and Arshdeep Singh took a wicket each.
Padikkal got the ‘Player of the Match’ award for his fifty.
With this, RR is in the fifth spot in the points table with seven wins and seven losses. They have a total of 14 points. They can still climb up to the top four spots if Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) lose their last match against Gujarat Titans by a huge margin and Mumbai Indians lose their last match against Sunrisers Hyderabad too.
PBKS’s IPL 2023 campaign is over. They end in the eighth position with six wins and eight losses. They have a total of 12 points.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Topics mentioned in this article
For all the latest Sports News Click Here
