Sports

Buttler nullifies Narine to orchestrate Rajasthan Royal’s thrilling win

Published

2 years ago

2024/04/17

Priyan

Jos Buttler cut loose at the perfect moment (IPL)

Jos Buttler smashed a century – his second of the season – and nullified Sunil Narine’s first triple-figure score in the tournament to pave the way for the joint-highest run-chase in IPL history. Narine’s reprise of the opening role for KKR hit a new peak as the West Indian scored 109 off 56. KKR, backed up by their 200-plus total, looked set to usurp RR to the summit of the points table but were undone by a brilliant Buttler, and a six-over mania at the end in which RR got 96 runs.

The game reached a juncture where KKR had the upper hand. Buttler was still in the middle but wasn’t quite at his best, while RR were down to 128 for 6, needing 96 off 36 balls. This was the epicentre of RR’s turnaround. Varun CV, who’d bowled three good overs, was hit for four fours by Buttler to signify that this game was far from over. Rovman Powell joined in to reiterate that as he hit Andre Russell for a six in the 16th over, which also went for 17 runs, and then went 4 6 6 against Narine to put the pressure back on KKR. Narine hit back by trapping the West Indian leg before, leaving Buttler to find his way around with RR’s long tail.

Mitchell Starc was back with RR needing 46 off 18 and was thoroughly smashed around by Buttler. The over began with a six, had the run out of Trent Boult in it but ended with RR wiping out 18 more from the target. Harshit Rana, who has been one of KKR’s better death bowlers this season, missed his mark repeatedly against Buttler and was duly punished. Buttler hit two sixes and a four in the 19th over to drag the equation down to just 9 off 6. That became 3 off 5 when Buttler hit a six over long-on off Varun. The spinner tied the limping Buttler to his crease on the next 3 balls but the fifth was a full toss that fetched 2 runs. On the last ball, Buttler pulled away to complete a sensational victory.

Phil Salt was offered a reprieve first over – a dropped catch by Riyan Parag at point – and then sent packing by a blinder of a return catch from Avesh Khan but KKR once again had a fantastic start to their batting innings. KKR were at 26/1 in 4 overs but then flew off the blocks. Narine and the impressive Angkrish Raghuvanshi went hard, even against RR’s fantastic powerplay bowler Trent Boult to guide the side to 56/1 in 6 overs. Boult, who operated at an economy rate of 6.06 in the PowerPlay until this game, was hit for 24 runs in three overs. Narine went after Kuldeep Sen in the sixth over to get warmed up for the exceptional innings that was to follow.

KKR’s risk-taking opener maximised facing a bowler who he matches up well against in the middle-overs – R Ashwin. Heading into this game, Narine had hit 60 off 22 from Ashwin in the IPL. Tonight, he scored 34 off 17 – with four fours and two sixes. Ashwin set a packed off-side field with a long off, deep point and deep extra cover but the left-hander repeatedly pierced it. Ashwin even got a couple of dots by flirting with the wide line outside the off-stump. Even with those, he got the runs to dent RR in the middle.

Yuzvendra Chahal dismissed Shreyas Iyer to move to 199 IPL wickets, but finished with his worst IPL figures – of 1 for 54, after being taken apart by Narine – particularly in his last over where he conceded 23 runs. Ashwin’s returns of 0 for 49 were his second-worst – also stretching his wicketless streak to five games this season. In the eight overs between them, they conceded 103 runs at an economy rate of 12.87.

After Narine brought up his century in the 16th over, the stage was set for Andre Russell to punish RR further. Avesh came back to deny the big West Indian a late flourish, getting him caught at extra cover by Dhruv Jurel for a 10-ball 13. Only seven runs came off that over, and the next from Boult, which also included the wicket of Narine. Rinku Singh and Venkatesh Iyer however, hit 25 off the last two overs to take KKR to 223/6.

Jos Buttler and Riyan Parag got the start the visitors needed in a chase as daunting as this one, as they amassed their best PowerPlay score of the season – 76/1. Yashasvi Jaiswal had another underwhelming outing and Sanju Samson fell after a couple of promising, but Parag continued to bring his audacious batting to the middle in the company of Buttler. Parag outpaced Buttler as he took down Harshit Rana, and Vaibhav Arora in a 23-run over in the sixth. Parag was particularly brutal against Rana but fell to the bowler’s slower one, with Andre Russell taking a good catch in the deep.

RR lost three wickets but still had 98 runs on the board in 8 overs, staying on course in the big chase. Sunil Narine then changed that by trapping Dhruv Jurel leg before in the ninth over. R Ashwin was once again promoted up the order, but he struggled to provide a push in the scoring while Buttler too went through a phase where he struggled to middle the ball. KKR spinners used the sticky pitch to make shot-making difficult as RR limped to 121/4 in 12 overs, needing 103 off the last 8 overs. Varun Chakravarthy, who was in the middle of a stirring spell, dismissed Ashwin and Shimron Hetmyer off successive deliveries to put KKR on course to finish the night on top of the points table. Buttler, however, had other ideas.

Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 223/6 in 20 overs (Sunil Narine 109, Angkrish Raghuvanshi 30; Avesh Khan 2-35) lost to Rajasthan Royals 224/8 in 20 overs (Jos Buttler 107*, Riyan Parag 34; Sunil Narine 2-30) by 2 wickets

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Sooryavanshi blitz, Jurel 81* help Rajasthan Royals take down Royal Challengers Bengaluru with ease

Published

9 hours ago

2026/04/11

Priyan

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi struck at 300.00 [Cricinfo]

Vaibhav Sooriyavanshi equalled his own record for the fastest half-century, off 15 balls, in a six-fest on a flat Guwahati deck as Rajasthan Royals walloped Royal Challengers Bengaluru for their fourth straight win.

RCB hit seven sixes through their 20 overs in an innings where they went all out, seemingly mindful of the challenge Sooryavanshi would pose. And pose he did, hitting seven sixes off his own blade, in a scarcely believable exhibition of brutal hitting.

Reputation counted for little. If it was Jasprit Bumrah the other night, it was Josh Hazlewood’s turn to come under Sooryavanshi’s wheel on Friday. By the time he was dismissed for a 26-ball 78, toe-ending a flat-batted hit to long-on off Krunal Pandya, RR’s asking rate in a 202 chase was just over six with 11.5 overs remaining.

Sooryavanshi’s uninhibited hitting was matched by Dhruv Jurel’s scintillating stroke play, the pair effectively snuffed out RCB’s hopes in the powerplay itself as they plundered 97 – the highest of the season. Although RR lost a couple of wickets in a rush thereafter, the result was never really in doubt.

RCB’s defence was given an early lift when the returning Hazlewood struck in the second over to remove Yashasvi Jaiswal. After conceding a couple of sixes off the short ball, Hazlewood responded smartly by going cross-seam and into the pitch to induce the edge. But the delight at having struck early dissipated quickly as Sooryavanshi seized control by rattling off three boundaries and a six in succession in his next over.

Each of the four boundaries pierced a different arc. The short ball was carved behind point, the hard length into the pitch was muscled over mid-on, the fuller one driven crisply between cover and mid-off, and when tested with the bumper, Sooryavanshi fetched it from outside off and nailed the pull over deep square for six.

And remarkably, it wasn’t just Hazlewood under the pump. Bhuvneshwar Kumar – who had nearly dismissed him first ball with a late-curving inswinging yorker, only for the teenager to dig it out and shovel it straight back for four – was also taken apart. In the fifth over, Sooryavanshi swatted him for back-to-back sixes to bring up his half-century.

Keeping pace with Sooryavanshi stroke for stroke can’t be easy, but Jurel managed it seamlessly, without ever looking like he was trying to. He capped off the powerplay by hitting rookie Abhinandan Singh for a sequence of 4, 6, 4, 0, 6, 4 to end an extraordinary passage.

Jurel’s fast hands were the defining feature of that over – whether it was picking length early to pull or using his wrists to whip the ball into the top tier over deep square. He would later take charge of the innings, tightening his approach after a flurry of wickets, and finishing unbeaten on 76 off 36 balls.

Jurel’s 68-run fifth-wicket stand with Ravindra Jadeja then guided RR home comfortably, steadying things after Krunal briefly stirred RCB’s hopes with back-to-back strikes of Sooryavanshi and Shimron Hetmyer in the ninth over.

RR went through a quiet passage of four overs without a boundary, but the early onslaught from Sooryavanshi and Jurel meant they could afford to play out a few quiet overs fully knowing RCB were a spinner short, as they activated Venkatesh Iyer as an impact player for batting firepower in place of Suyash Sharma.

The match had a blockbuster opening act, with Jofra Archer’s vicious, rip-roaring bouncer sending back Phil Salt for a golden duck. But Virat Kohli fought fire with fire, hitting him for three boundaries in his next over, before Archer struck back to remove the in-form Devdutt Padikkal.

This didn’t affect Kohli, though, as he shredded a much-talked-about matchup with Sandeep Sharma (who had dismissed him seven times in 18 innings) by thumping him over the infield for two fours. But trouble soon came RCB’s way as Ravi Bishnoi struck two quick blows to leave them 73 for 4.

In his first two outings, Rajat Patidar went crash-bang-wallop from the get-go. But a top-order wobble forced him to dig deep. He played himself in, getting to 20 off 22 balls at one stage. And then, three overs later, he brought up a half-century off 35 balls. One of the reasons for this surge was his surety in stroke-making.

The two sixes he hit off Nandre Burger in the 15th had that stamp of authority. A gentle extension of his arms to loft one cleanly over long-off laid down the marker, but the hop back to whip a short ball aimed at his ribs over deep square leg was the blockbuster.

With none of Romario Shepherd or Tim David coming off with the bat, RCB brought in Venkatesh Iyer as their Impact Player, leaving Suyash on the bench. And Venkatesh gave an excellent account of himself on RCB debut, finishing the innings off with a cameo 29 that pushed them past 200.

As it turned out, it was nowhere near enough.

Brief scores:
Rajasthan Royals 202 for 4 (Yashasvi Jiswal 13, Dhruv Jurel 81*, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 78, Ravindra Jadeja 24*; Josh Hazelwood 2-44, Krunal Pandya 2-30) beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru 201 for 8 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli32, Devudutt Padikkal 14, Rajat Patidar 63, Tim David 13, Romario Shepherd 22, Venkatesh Iyer 29*; Jofra Archer 2-33, Sandeep Sharma 1-47, Ravi Bishnoi 2-32, Ravindra Jadeja 1-14, Brijesh Sharma 2-37) by six wickets

[Cricinfo]

Sports

Brazil bowler Laura Cardoso takes 9 Lesotho wickets in record-breaking T20 win

Published

1 day ago

2026/04/10

Priyan

Laura Cardoso has taken the best bowling record in a T20 Women's International following her nine-wicket haul against Lesotho [Aljazeera]

Brazil are the unlikely candidates to have claimed two cricket records as one of their bowlers took a record nine wickets – including five in a row – in their 189-run T20 Women’s International victory against Lesotho in Botswana.

Having won the toss on Thursday, at the BCA Kalahari Women’s T20 International Tournament, Brazil posted a daunting 202-8 with wicketkeeper Monnike Machado hitting 69 off 41.

The fun, for the Brazilians, was only just beginning, though, as Laura Cardoso claimed a hat-trick with the last three deliveries of her first over – the second of the Lesotho innings – to set in motion the incredible feat that eventually saw the Africans bowled out for 13.

The 21-year-old then continued her wicket-taking achievement with a Women’s T20 International first of five dismissals in a row as she struck with the first two balls of her second over. This was all part of claiming the first nine Lesotho wickets to fall, but being denied the chance to take all 10 after a change of bowling following her third over. Her final wicket was Ret’sepile Limema, who fell to the fifth ball of the fifth over, with Cardoso replaced for the following over at that end. Her nine wickets, nevertheless, is the best return in either men’s or women’s T20 internationals.

The right-arm seamer did, indeed, come close to another hat-trick, when she claimed wickets with the last two balls of her second over, which itself totalled four victims.

Cardoso, who has has taken 55 wickets in 48 T20 matches for Brazil, replaces Indonesia’s Rohmalia Rohmalia at the top of the Women’s T20 best bowling rankings, as she finished with figures of 3-2-4-9.

Rohmalia had claimed seven wickets in 2024 in a match against Mongolia in Bali. Only three other women have claimed seven in a T20 international.

The men’s record, and the overall in the format, had been held by Bhutan’s Sonam Yeshey after ⁠he took eight wickets for seven ⁠runs against Myanmar ⁠last year.

The previous record for the number of wickets in consecutive deliveries was four, and was jointly held with the most prominent occasion in women’s cricket being when Shakera Selman pulled off the feat for the West Indies against Pakistan in 2018. Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan and Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga are among the most notable bowlers from the men’s game to have claimed four consecutively in the format.

Although a huge winning margin, Brazil’s overall win does not compare with Argentina’s record after they beat Chile by 364 runs in 2023. The Argentinians had struck 427-1 to set up their victory.

Lesotho’s part in the record extends to no further than Cardoso’s haul, with the record-lowest total belonging to Mali, who were bowled out for 6 in 2019 by Rwanda.

Brazil, ‌who lead the six-team tournament with five straight wins, play ‌Mozambique ‌on Friday.

[Aljazeera]

Latest News

Zimbabwe Women set for maiden tour of Pakistan

Published

1 day ago

2026/04/10

Priyan

Pakistan and Zimbabwe will play 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is [Cricbuzz]

Zimbabwe Women are set for their maiden tour to Pakistan for three ODIs and three T20Is.

The ODIs kick off on May 3 and will be part of the ICC Women’s Championship 2025-29. The T20I series will be played from May 12. All six matches will take place at the National Bank Stadium in Karachi.

Pakistan are currently placed fifth on the Women’s Championship table after a 2-1 series loss to South Africa. Zimbabwe are placed seventh after a three-match series loss to New Zealand.

Zimbabwe are scheduled to arrive in Pakistan on April 29.