GUWAHATI: Jos Buttler had a terrific last season helping Rajasthan Royals to the IPL final and the Englishman has started off this season from where he had left off in IPL 2022. More importantly, his success with the bat on the top of the order is also rubbing off on young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, who raced to his second fifty in three matches this season.
Enjoying opening the innings with the T20 World Cup-winning England skipper, the young Mumbai batter thanked his illustrious partner for bringing out the best in him.
"It was amazing, I'm enjoying a lot while batting. When Jos is there, he gives you very good messages, 'just try to play good cricketing shots'," Jaiswal said in the post-match press conference after helping Royals to return to winning ways in Guwahati on Saturday.
"I think everything I learn is from Buttler. I try to see how he practises and I know I can take on a few bowlers," said a confident Jaiswal who was adjudged man of the match for his 31-ball 60.
Coming to bat first on a hot Saturday afternoon, Jaiswal set the tone in the very first over, hitting left-arm Rajasthan pacer Khaleel Ahmed all around the park for five boundaries. And Delhi Capitals could not recover from that hammering.
"Someday you see the ball very well. I play my shots and express myself, I had that confidence. I kept telling myself 'if it's a loose ball I will punish it'. I will try to score runs. When I started, I thought (I need) to watch out, but (in the) first two balls I got fours.
Then I thought I could reach a big score from here. I was seeing the ball well, I got the feel that I was well-set already. If I'm set, I contribute to the team. My approach is always to play scoring shots," explained the 21-year-old when asked about his approach for the very first over.
Need some soul-searching, feels Punter: Subjected to a hat-trick of losses to start with, Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting minced no words admitting that his boys got to do more soul-searching after putting in hard yards in the practice sessions.
"We are a long way off right now. I can't put my finger on why because I watch these boys train and prepare. Their work has been really good, their training has been great, but it hasn't come across in terms of results on the field. If I could put my finger on it, I'd do something to change it. We need to do some more soul-searching as a group and talk about it," said a disappointed Ponting after the game.
"I'll just let the guys have a think about it. We may address it the next day, but we need to turn it around pretty quickly. Three games in and no wins…you can't afford to get off to bad starts in the IPL," he added.
"In the first two games, we sort of got to none for 40 early on and then lost wickets in the back part of the powerplay. Here, it was completely different. We were two down in the first over and you have your back to the wall from there," Ponting added further.
Yet to click as a bowling and batting unit, Capitals have to look for answers soon before taking on Mumbai Indians next.
"You look at our first two overs with the ball — they were none for 32 with eight fours — it says our execution with the ball was way below what it needs to be. So, if you look at the first two overs of our bowling innings and first two overs of our batting innings, you put those together and it's very hard to win games of cricket," he concluded.
