Watch: Hardik Pandya loses his balance to gift Jos Buttler a lifeline during IPL Qualifier 1 – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

Rajasthan Royals’ opener Jos Buttler who was touted to break Virat Kohli’s record of scoring the most run in an IPL season, was seen struggling in the last seven games registering just 138 runs at the strike rate of 111. The struggle continued at the initial stage of the first qualifier against Gujarat Titans at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Tuesday. But one error from the Gujarat skipper had changed the game for Buttler and brought his first half-century score in six games.

Starting off the innings with a couple of cover drives Buttler played second fiddle to skipper Sanju Samson who smashed a blazing 26-ball 47. On the other hand, Buttler was standing at 39 off 28 deliveries at the start of the 17th over. On a track that was predicted to serve a 170-plus score, Rajasthan Royals managed to score just 127 runs in 16 overs.

In the 17th over bowled by Yash Dayal, Buttler tried to boost the innings and hammered the first delivery to clear the boundary. In the second one, he tried to do the same and launched the outside-off delivery to the long-off region. Hardik Pandya ran in to reach the ball and almost got himself in the position to take the catch. But when the ball was about to land, Pandya slipped and fell to the ground. The ball bounced and went over him to clear the ropes.

Watch the video here:

Till then, Buttler’s innings was full of lifelines as he survived a dismissal opportunity twice. But after the incident, Buttler finally came out of his shell and took a strong hold of the game. In the next 17 deliveries, he whacked seven boundaries and two maximums to score 47 runs. Thus, he completed his seventh fifty-plus score of the season and took his overall score tally of the season to 718 almost securing the Orange Cap. Riding on Buttler’s 56-ball 89, Rajasthan Royals put up a fighting score of 188 runs. However, they failed to defend the target and lost the match by 7 wickets.

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