Bengaluru, April 2 Jos Buttler's extensive experience came to the fore in hitting an unbeaten 73 off 39 balls as Gujarat Titans outclassed Royal Challengers Bengaluru by eight wickets to get their second win of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Wednesday.
After Liam Livingstone's 40-ball 54, along with Jitesh Sharma and Tim David hitting 33 and 32 respectively in RCB posting 169/8, Buttler assessed the conditions well and targeted bowlers astutely to hit five fours and six sixes in his unbeaten knock.
He shared partnerships of 75 and 63 with B. Sai Sudharsan and Sherfane Rutherford, who hit 49 and 30 not out respectively, as GT remained in control all the time to complete their chase with 13 balls to spare.
Chasing 170, Shubman Gill and Sudharsan couldn’t break free as Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar didn’t allow them to go berserk from the word go, as GT made only 15 runs in the first three overs. Sudharsan finally broke free by scooping and straight-driving Hazlewood for six and four respectively.
Gill smacked Bhuvneshwar for a six over long-on, but the veteran pacer had the last laugh as the GT skipper looked to hit a maximum again, but the outside edge was caught by a deep third man. After GT ended the power-play at 42/1, Sudharsan and Buttler pulled and glanced off impact player Rasikh Salam for a four each.
After Sudharsan cut Yash Dayal through point for four, Buttler heaved, pulled, and got a top edge off Salam to collect four and two sixes in an 18-run ninth over. Runs continued to flow for GT as Sudharsan pulled Krunal Pandya through square leg for four, while Buttler cut Yash Dayal between the backward point and short third-man for a delightful boundary.
In desperate need of a wicket, RCB brought back Hazlewood and the pacer delivered to his team’s call by cramping Sudharsan with a short ball and took a glove edge to a diving Jitesh. Impact player Sherfane Rutherford got going by flaying Hazlewood for four, before tonking Krunal over long-on for six.
Buttler shut the door on an opening for RCB to claw back by lofting over Liam Livingstone’s head for four, before smacking over long-on for six to bring up his fifty in 31 balls. From there, Buttler and Rutherford’s consistent hitting of boundaries, including the latter smacking the winning sixer with a pull-off Hazlewood, sealed GT’s second win of the season.
Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 169/8 in 20 overs (Liam Livingstone 54, Jitesh Sharma 33; Mohammed Siraj 3-19, R Sai Kishore 2-22) lost to Gujarat Titans 170/2 in 17.5 overs (Jos Buttler 73 not out, B. Sai Sudharsan 49, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 1-23, Josh Hazlewood 1-43) by eight wickets
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