IPL 2021: Buttler (124 off 64) gives Rajasthan big win over Sunrisers

England’s Jos Buttler hit 124 from 64 balls – his first Twenty20 hundred – as Rajasthan Royals beat Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League.

Buttler made a relatively slow start but accelerated in stunning fashion, striking 11 fours and eight sixes.

The opener scored 35 from his first 33 balls and then 89 from his next 31 to power Rajasthan to 220-3.

Sunrisers faded after England’s Jonny Bairstow fell for 30 in reply, ending on 165-8 in a 55-run defeat.

They dropped Australia’s David Warner a day after removing him as captain.

The knock by Buttler, who eventually played on off Sandeep Sharma in the penultimate over, is the highest score by an England player in the IPL.

He is the fourth England player to hit an IPL ton, following Kevin Pietersen, Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow, and passed his previous T20 high score of 95 not out.

“I’ll finally stop getting [former England captain] Alastair Cook telling me he has one more T20 hundred than me,” Buttler said.

Sri Lanka legend Kumar Sangakkara, part of the Royals’ management, said: “It was an outstanding innings. He is one of the best T20 openers in the world.”

Rajasthan jump to fifth in the table at the tournament’s halfway stage, two points off the play-off places while Sunrisers remain bottom.

Elsewhere, Punjab Kings and India batsman KL Rahul, the leading run-scorer in the tournament, has been hospitalised with acute appendicitis and will undergo surgery. (BBC Sport)