Jos Buttler is joining Virat Kohli as the sixth person to run multiple centuries in one season of the Indian Premier League T20 tournament. The batsman achieved the hallmark in his last game against Kolkata Knight Riders by scoring 103 runs off 61 balls.
Buttler is now a strong contender for the Orange Cap title on IPL this year as the top runner of the tournament. He is the second player after Shane Watson to score a century as a non-Indian player.
Butler has played with the Rajashtan Royals across six games in IPL this year and scored a spectacular number of total runs. He scored two centuries as well as two halves.
But his first century in the IPL was scored in 2021 with 124 runs making the total runs scored to more than three centuries across all IPL seasons.
He scored his third century ever when he batted Pat Cummins bowls in the 17th over of the first innings. While on the pitch, he was able to score nine fours and five maximums. He was the opening batsman of the match in partnership with Devdutt Padikkal and Sanju Samson later.
"Enjoyed both the hundreds," Buttler said during an innings break.
"A bit more fluent today. A little bit sticky to start off with but once you get used to it, it was good to bat on. Difficult for bowlers with one short side. Early on bowl lengths even if you get hit. Towards the end, be smart with slower ones and short lengths, and make them hit to the longer side as much as possible," he continued.
Kohli won the Orange Cap in 2016 when he runs an incredible total of 973 including 4 centuries and 7 half-centuries. He took the title when he played with the Royal Challengers Bangalore across 16 games.
The four other batsmen on the list of top multiple century runners in an IPL season are Chris Gayle (2012), Hashim Amla (2017), Shane Watson (2018), and Shikhar Dhawan (2020). They each scored two centuries in their respective seasons.
The game between RR and KKR was held on April 18, 2022, at Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai. It is the 30th game out of 70 in the IPL 2022. The game starts with KKR winning the coin toss and deciding to bowl in the first innings.
The Royals started the game strongly, ending the innings with 217 runs in 20 overs, losing only 5 wickets.
Butler’s century runs dwarf two other top scorers for Rajasthan during the match. Sanju Samson scored less than a half-century at 38 runs off 19 balls and Shimron Hetmyer at 26 runs not out off 13 balls.
Kolkata Knight Riders actually did not do so badly in the game by ending the second innings with a score of 210 in 19.4 overs. Unfortunately, they were out of wickets in the last overs and thus unable to finish the whole 20 overs.
Kolkata only lost by 7 runs to the Royals which made losing their last wicket more impactful since they had a higher possibility of winning if the last two balls in the overs were bowled.
