Jos Buttler braved cramps to rustle up a tempestuous unbeaten 97 to guide Gujarat Titans to a wonderful seven-wicket win over Delhi Capitals on Saturday. After the impressive Prasidh Krishna-led (4/41) Gujarat pacers limited Delhi to 203/8, the home side paced their chase impeccably to reach 204/3 in 19.2 overs as Buttler played the protagonist role during his 54-ball innings. There were mini-hiccups for the Titans in the form of early dismissals of skipper Shubhman Gill and B Sai Sudharsan (36), who helped Buttler add 60 runs for the second wicket.
But Buttler batted around them with collectedness in the company of Rutherford (43) until the left-hander was dismissed in the penultimate over.
The English-West Indian pair milked 119 runs for the third wicket that pushed GT closer to the shore.
Buttler’s batting is aesthetically violent as he exploited a pitch on which the ball came fluently on to the bat. The Somerset man has all the shots in the book but plays them in the calmest of ways.
Instead of moving around the crease like modern T20 batters, Buttler often relies on a strong body core and quick hands to unfurl his shots.
There was a telltale example of his methods when he biffed Mitchell Starc for five boundaries in a row in the 15th over.
Buttler did not move towards the ball but reached out with a feet firmly rooted on the ground as the ball sped to the ropes between covers and point regions.
On the other hand, Rutherford’s batting was all about brute power, as he showed while pulling pacer Mohit Sharma for two consecutive sixes as GT motored on.
There was not a popular Buttler hundred as Rahul Tewatia finished off the match with a six and four off Starc with four balls to spare.
The result also helped the Titans to move to the top of the table with 10 points, same as Delhi but the former has a better net run rate of 0.98 against their opponent’s 0.58.
Earlier, Gujarat bowlers led by Prasidh, produced a disciplined effort to stifle the Delhi batting unit.
It started from the top-order. Abhishek Porel (23) started well, hammering pacer Mohammed Siraj for 16 runs in the first over.
The barrage included two fours and a six and he looked set for a bigger score. But he perished in the next over to Arshad Khan, clubbing his over-pitched delivery straight to Siraj at mid-on.
KL Rahul (28, 14b) and Karun Nair (31, 18b) added 35 runs for the second wicket and played some delectable shots.
Rahul’s six over long-on off Siraj and Karun’s pick-up flick for a six off Arshad were simply wonderful.
But Prasidh trapped his Karnataka teammate Rahul with a searing yorker that pinged his back foot to break the promising alliance.
Karun tried to ramp Prasidh but Arshad took an easy catch at wide third man as DC slipped to 93 for three despite consuming only nine overs.
The visitors then weaved another good stand of 53 runs through Tristan Stubbs (31) and Axar Patel (39) for the fifth wicket.
Stubbs’s cover drives off Prasidh that raced to the fence testified his grace and power.
Just as the South African, who was dropped on 30 by Rashid Khan off his own bowling, was gaining in confidence, he chose to play a reverse paddle off Siraj only to be caught by Prasidh at short third man.
The Karnataka pacer returned to get rid of Axar as he continued to dig the ball into the pitch to get some bounce and grip to keep the batters guessing.
Ashutosh Sharma (37, 19b) played some beefy shots as they crossed the 200-run mark. PTI UNG AM UNG AM AM
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