"You've got to swallow your ego" – RR's Jos Buttler on overcoming odds en route 89 vs GT in Qualifier 1

Jos Buttler’s 89 off 56 was an innings of two halves. Nonetheless, it went in vain as the Gujarat Titans (GT) beat the Rajasthan Royals (RR) by seven wickets at the Eden Gardens to progress to the IPL 2022 final. The RR opener revealed that he wasn't flinched by the scatchy start and believed that the tide would turn at some point.

While skipper Sanju Samson blasted a 26-ball 47, Jos Buttler found it excruciatingly hard to time the ball. He was 30 off 31 at one stage before shifting gears, albeit after getting a few reprieves from GT. He explained how it’s important to keep the ego aside, while not making the struggle apparent.

“What I tried to do was just to hang in there. I know I trust myself that I’ll get away at some point, it’s just today it came very late in the innings. Whereas, sometimes you’d hope it's a bit earlier you can get away. No look, I was determined to hang in there. It was a big game for us and, batting first, I wanted to make sure we put a good score on the board.

"And I think just sometimes, you've got to swallow your ego – if you’re finding it hard, you’re finding it hard. And just not to try and force it too much, don’t panic. I know the opposition would prefer me to panic and get out, so just try to get hang in there. And try and bide my time and pick a match-up when I can get it,” Buttler said in response to a Sportskeeda query at the post-match press conference.

The 31-year-old Englishman further lavished praise on Samson, saying his free-flowing knock didn’t allow the run-rate to drop, thus allowing Buttler the cushion to see himself in.

“Sanju came in and was playing fantastically well from ball one. So [I] tried to get him back on strike for a bit, he took a lot of pressure off me. And yeah, it certainly wasn’t my most fluent innings. But just tried to hang tough and stay in there and managed to get away a little bit at the end an and ride my luck,” the Orange Cap holder stated.

Buttler's next 59 runs came off just 25 deliveries as the Royals plundered 61 runs in the final four overs to post a competitive 188 for six.

View the IPL 2022 timetable here.

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“We are still in the tournament” – Jos Buttler looks forward to Qualifier 2

Hardik Pandya (R) and David Miller (L) smashed 106 off 60 deliveries to take GT home [Credits: IPL]

In the end, the total was not enough as an unbroken 106-run alliance between GT captain Hardik Pandya (40 off 27) and David Miller (68 off 38) got the IPL newbies over the line with three balls to spare.

With 16 needed in the last over, the South African southpaw deposited Prasidh Krishna (0 for 40) into the stands on all of the first three balls to ace the chase. But barring the final-over heroics, Rajasthan couldn’t make inroads into the opposition primarily because their spin twins had an off day.

Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin have scalped a combined 37 wickets this season. But they went for 72 runs in their eight overs tonight without taking a single wicket. Jos Buttler came out in support of them, saying that the margin for error was very less.

“Those two guys have been outstanding for us all season. We continue to back them. This is a tough place for bowlers. Seam bowling or spin, if you are just a tiny bit off, it’s a really small ground with a very fast outfield. So lots of boundaries available on this particular ground. So it’s always going to be a little bit tough and bowling second, there was maybe a little bit of dew as well. But that's one of the reasons we were so desperate to finish in the top 2. We are still alive in the tournament, we’ve still got a chance. We are disappointed today, we’ll dust ourselves off but we are still in the tournament,” he reiterated.

RR will get another shot at making a second IPL final when they play the Qualifier 2 in Ahmedabad on Friday. In front of them will be either the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) or the Lucknow Super Giants – the two will go head-to-head tomorrow on the same pitch that was used for tonight’s encounter.

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