Former India spinner Harbhajan Singh lavished praise on Rajasthan Royals (RR) opener Jos Buttler for playing a match-winning knock against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in an IPL 2023 match on a spin-friendly track in Chennai and called the English opener the ‘number 1’ batter in the world.
Royals put up a splendid show and held their nerve to record their first win at the MA Chidambaram Stadium since 2008 as they beat CSK by three runs on Wednesday night.
Batting first, Buttler (52 off 36) led the charge with his third fifty of the season while Devdutt Padikkal (38), R Ashwin (30), and Shimron Hetmyer (30 not out) chipped in with valuable contributions to help the team post a competitive total of 175/8 in 20 overs.
During the process, Buttler completed 3000 runs in the IPL. He took 85 innings to get to the milestone, the third-fastest in the league. Sandeep Sharma then kept his cool in the final over and defended 21 runs against MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja to give his team a famous win.
Apart from Sandeep’s nerve of steel under pressure in the last over, RR’s spin trio of Ravichandran Ashwin- Yuzvendra Chahal and Adam Zampa bowled beautifully to chok the CSK batters in the run chase.
“I fell short of words to praise Jos Buttler. He is a proper batter of the cricket ball. He uses the crease to perfection, possesses good technique, and he has good footwork against pace and spin. For me, he’s the No. 1 batter in world cricket at the moment,” Harbhajan said on Star Sports’ Cricket Live Show.
After their third win in four matches, Royals jumped to the top spot in the standings on better net run rate with a tie with Lucknow Super Giants on six points each.
