Buttler’s 95, Samson’s 66 not out take RR to 214/2 against SRH

Jaipur, May 7 (PTI) English opener Jos Buttler and captain Sanju Samson struck commanding half centuries as Rajasthan Royals piled up 214 for 2 against Sunrisers Hyderabad in their Indian Premier League match here on Sunday.

After a 54-run opening stand with Yashasvi Jaiswal (35), Buttler (95 off 59 balls) stitched another 138 runs with Samson (66 not out) in 13.3 overs to steer the Royals to a big total after opting to bat.

Buttler missed a well-deserved century as he got out in the penultimate over with five runs short. He hit 10 fours and four sixes during his crafty innings.

Samson’s 38-ball unbeaten knock was studded with four boundaries and five sixes.

The SRH bowlers looked clueless throughout the innings with all of them bleeding runs.

The Royals made a rollicking start, reaching 61 for one at the end of powerplay, thanks to a quickfire 35 off just 18 balls from the talented Jaiswal who continued his fine form this season to reach 1000 IPL runs.

The youngster struck two maximums off Bhuvneshwar Kumar (4-0-44-1) and Marco Jansen (4-0-44-1) as well as five fours but fell to a soft dismissal of the latter bowler in the fifth over.

Jansen extracted extra bounce from a slower offcutter and Jaiswal simply lofted the ball on to the hands of T Natarajan.

The tempo continued as the home side were 107 for 1 at the halfway stage with one-down Samson punishing the SRH bowlers and scoring his first fifty in six matches.

Samson targeted Mayank Markande for special treatment as he struck three towering sixes off the hapless bowler in the ninth over which yielded 21 runs.

Buttler, who was relatively quiet in the early part of his innings, began to open up his arms after settling down nicely.

The Buttler-Samson duo kept the run-rate above 10 run an over all the time, reaching 150 in the 15th over as the SRH bowlers became increasingly clueless on how to break the partnership.

The Royals duo kept on getting the sixes every over as they launched onto the SRH bowlers after laying a strong foundation. The Royals added 60 runs off the last five overs.

Samson struck two more sixes off Markande in the 16th over and then reached his third fifty in the 18th over off 33 balls.

Buttler was out five runs short of hundred in the penultimate over with Bhuvneshwar Kumar getting his scalp after a review.