IPL 2022: Jos Butler scored scorEd an unbeaten century to lead Rajasthan Royals to victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore and reach the final.
Rajasthan Royals opted to bowl first and got off to a good start. Virat Kohli hit a six off Trent Boult in the first over but was sent packing by Prasidh Krishna in the second one.
This meant Faf Du Plesis and first eliminator hero Rajat Patidar batted catiously to see of Prasidh as RCB reached 46/1 in 6 overs.
Patidar went after Yuzvendra Chahal in the middle-overs and once Du Plessis departed, he combined with Glenn Maxwell to up the scoring rate. They took 26 off two overs from RR’s spin looking dangerous.
Maxwell’s stay at the pitch came to an end after he scored 24 off 13, while Patidar reached another 50, this one less fluent but more gritty.
Patidar hit a six off Ashwin but another sharp fielding effort by Jos Butler ended his stay for 58 off 42 balls.
The score was 130/4 in 15.3 overs when Patidar fell with some hope of a late blitz.
But Prasidh got rid of RCB’s finisher Dinesh Karthik, who holed out to long on, and bowled a searing yorker to knock out Wanindu Hasaranga’s stumps on the next delivery, stunning the RCB dugout.
Prasidh ended with figures of 3 for 22 – his joint second-best figures in T20 cricket. McCoy matched him over for over, to finish on 3 for 23 – including the last one where he conceded just three runs to leave RCB with a sub-par total of 157 for 8.
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In reply Rajasthan got off to a flyer. Yashasvi Jaiswal showed he meant business in the very first over, when he sent a length ball from Mohammed Siraj for six.
Siraj had more misery coming his way as he conceded 16 in his first over and 15 in his next. The second came courtesy Buttler’s flying start.
Du Plessis introduced his left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed early, only to be tonked away by Buttler who was looking menacning.
RR flew to 61 for 0. Josh Hazlewood dismissed Jaiswal in the final over of the PowerPlay, but the match was slipping away from RCB’s hands.
Du Plessis hoped for different results with Shahbaz in the middle-overs, but in vain. Both Samson and Buttler collected fours and a six as the spinner conceded 35 in his 2 overs.
RR had breached the 100-run mark at halfway stage and Butler was set to take them home.
Hasaranga got rid of Samson but it came a touch too late for RCB.
The asking rate was already down to just over six and Buttler dwarfed it further in the 16th over, hitting two sixes of Hasaranga to bring up his fourth century of IPL 2022 – the joint-most by a batter in a single season [with Kohli in 2016].
Fittingly, it was Buttler who capped off the chase on the first ball of the 19th over, biffing Harshal Patel for a six. He finished with an incredible innings, studded with 10 fours and six sixes scoring 106 off 60 balls to set up a rematch against Gujarat Titans in the final of IPL 2022.
