Rajasthan Royals (RR) star opener Jos Buttler has gone into a shocking slump in the IPL 2023. On Friday, Jos Buttler created an unwanted, embarrassing record of becoming the first batsman in the IPL history to register five ducks in a single season.
It was Punjab Kings (PBKS) seamer Kagiso Rabada who got rid of Jos Buttler early in RR’s chase. Rabada bowled three outswingers and then, on the fourth ball, as Buttler moved across his stumps, Rabada bowled an inswinger to trap Buttler out lbw. This was also a hat-trick of ducks for Buttler, following on from two scores of zeroes from the matches against KKR and RCB.
Rajasthan Royals won this thrilling match in Dharamsala in the last over to keep themselves alive in the playoff race.
After the match, captain Sanju Samson, leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal and Buttler spend some time sitting together in the ground after what could well be the last match of the Royals in the Indian Premier League 2023 if they fail to reach the playoffs.
Samson captioned the photo, “Yuziii, Josetta..korch neram irunnu nokam Chelapo Biriyani kittiyalo ?🧐😂🤣” referring to Salim Kumar’s hit dialogue from the Malayalam movie One Man Show. It translates to “Let’s sit for sometime, maybe we might get Biryani.”
Trolling himself hilariously for his five ducks, Jos Buttler then commented:
“No Biryani… duck pancakes”
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Fans laughed out at this self-criticism by Jos Buttler and hailed him as a nice sport.
Talking about the match, Punjab Kings posted a formidable total of 187/5 in this must-win encounter for both teams. PBKS were in big trouble at 50/4 having lost Liam Livingstone. But Jitesh Sharma (44 off 28), Sam Curran (49* off 31), and Shahrukh Khan (41* off 23) pulled them back in the game to take them to a total of over 180.
In reply, even though RR lost Jos Buttler early – for this third consecutive duck! – in-form Yashasvi Jaiswal and making a comeback in the side Devdutt Padikkal went all guns blazing against the PBKS bowlers. Padikkal cracked 51 off 30 while Jaiswal scored 50 off 36. Later on Hetmyer smashing 46 off 28 brought RR close to the target for Dhruv Jurel to win the match in the last over with a six.
With this win, RR finish the league stage with 14 points and pipped over Mumbai Indians on NRR. RR sit at the 5th position with 14 points in 14 games while MI are 6th with 14 points in 13 games. RCB have 14 points in 13 games and have a better NRR than both RR and MI.
Can RR get into playoffs in IPL 2023?
RR will be eliminated if any one of RCB and MI win their last game. RR needs both MI and RCB to lose their last match, and for RCB to lose by a margin that pushes their NRR lower than RR’s.
