Mumbai: Brimming with confidence after smashing his fifth successive half-century, in-form Jos Buttler said familiarity of the Wankhede track helped him score runs as Rajasthan Royals (RR) beat Mumbai Indians (MI) by seven wickets in an IPL-XI encounter here Sunday to keep play-off hopes alive.
Buttler’s unbeaten 94 helped RR defeat defending champions MI with two overs to spare keeping them firmly in contention of reaching the play-offs.
“Nice to come back here, I enjoyed my time at Mumbai and it properly helped to know the conditions. The familiarity of the ground and the wicket helped me. I’m in a good head-space and looking forward to the next game,” Buttler said at the post-match presentation ceremony
Buttler, who played for MI in 2016 and 2017, has been in tremendous form scoring five consecutive half centuries, including unbeaten knocks of 94 and 95 in the previous two games against MI and Chennai Super Kings respectively. He also scored 82 against Kings XI Punjab.
“I’m really enjoying it, found some good form, it’s a do-or-die situation and I’m full of confidence so want to keep it going,” the English batsman said.
The swashbuckling batsman is hoping his experience in the middle order will help him bat through the innings scoring more runs.
“I’ve spent a lot of time batting in the middle order, so if I can bat through the first six overs I can tie the two together. I try to be there till the end,” Buttler said.
Losing team captain Rohit Sharma also complimented Buttler for his match-winning knock and said his team need to come up with a plan to win the next two matches. “Buttler has been in great form, he didn’t give us any chances, but we bowled very well,” Sharma said.
Brief scores: MI 168/6 (Evin Lewis 60; Jofra Archer 2/16) lost to RR 171/3 (Jos Buttler 94 n o; Hardik Pandya 2/52) by seven wickets.
