AHMEDABAD, India (AP) — Jos Buttler scored 97 not out off 54 balls as Gujarat Titans beat Delhi Capitals by seven wickets and moved atop the Indian Premier League on Saturday.
Elsewhere, pacer Avesh Khan bowled a tremendous final over for Lucknow Super Giants to stun hosts Rajasthan Royals by a slender two runs in Jaipur.
Khan defended nine needed off six balls, conceding only six, as Rajasthan squandered a winning position from 156-2 after 17 overs. It finished with 178-5 in 20 overs.
Aiden Markram and Ayush Badoni hit fifties to help Lucknow to 180-5, enough to power them to a fifth win.
Buttler misses ton but Gujarat wins
Buttler missed out on a record-equalling eighth hundred as he hit 11 fours and four sixes to complete Gujarat’s chase with four balls to spare.
Sherfane Rutherford scored 43 off 34 balls and put on 119 off 69 for the third wicket with Buttler — their century stand taking Gujarat to 204-3 in 19.2 overs.
This was after Delhi Capitals made 203-8 with skipper Axar Patel top-scoring with 39 off 32.
Gujarat replaced Delhi on top of the table on run-rate.
Chasing a tall score, Gujarat lost skipper Shubman Gill, run out for 7 by a direct throw from Karun Nair.
It brought Buttler to the crease, and he shared 60 off 35 with Sai Sudharsan for the second wicket.
Sudharsan scored 36 off 21 to the eighth over and Gujarat was at a comfortable 74-2.
Buttler reached 50 off 32 and picked up the scoring pace in Rutherford’s company. The duo put up 100 off 54, the highest third-wicket partnership for Gujarat in IPL history.
But the game took a sudden twist toward the finish.
Rutherford was out caught in the penultimate over off Mukesh Kumar, leaving 10 needed off the last six deliveries. Rahul Tewatia smashed a six and a four off two balls from Mitchell Starc and Buttler was left stranded on 97 at the other end.
Earlier, Delhi was put into bat and put on a sizable total despite lacking a match-winning contribution.
Abhishel Porel was out for 19 and opening partner Nair scored 31 off 18 balls with two sixes.
Delhi kept losing wickets, especially to pacer Prasidh Krishna, who picked up 4-41 in four overs.
The big moment came when Krishna trapped Lokesh Rahul for 28 off 14 in the fifth over.
The best stand was between Axar Patel and Tristan Stubbs of 53 off 36. Ashutosh Sharma’s cameo — 37 off 19 with three sixes — allowed Delhi to cross 200.
Rajasthan loses from a position of strength
Opting to bat, Lucknow lost the in-form Mitchell Marsh (4) and tournament top-scorer Nicholas Pooran (11) early. Skipper Rishabh Pant fell for 3 and Lucknow slipped to 54-3 in 7.4 overs.
Markram, though, held one end, and put on 76 off 49 balls with Badoni as they rebuilt the innings.
The South African batter scored 50 off 31, hitting three sixes and five fours, in his fourth half-century of the season. Badoni powered to 50 off 34, including five fours and a six.
Both perished in the space of 11 deliveries to leave Lucknow at 143-5, but Abdul Samad stepped in and smacked four sixes off the last four deliveries to finish the innings on a high.
The 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi became the youngest IPL cricketer when Rajasthan’s chase began, and he didn’t show any nerves, smacking his first ball for a six.
Filling in for the injured Sanju Samson, Suryavanshi scored 34 off 20 balls while fellow opener Yashasvi Jaiswal fired his fourth half-century at the other end.
Jaiswal scored 74 off 52, including four sixes, and put on 85 off 52 balls for the opening stand. Later, he added another 62 off 43 with stand-in skipper Riyan Parag, who scored 39 off 26.
Needing 25 off the last three overs, Rajasthan was in command, but lost Jaiswal and Parag to yorkers by Khan in the 18th over.
Khan was given the final over as well, and stunned by conceding to Rajasthan only six runs and taking another wicket.
“Really hard to process all the emotions. Don’t know what we did wrong,” Parag said. “The last over was unfortunate.”
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The Associated Press
