On Wednesday evening, at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi, Jos Buttler broke out of his poor rut of form with the bat and struck a majestic half-century during the DC vs GT encounter.
Match no. 14 of IPL 2026 saw the Delhi Capitals (DC) host the Gujarat Titans (GT) in Delhi. Both teams have had contrasting seasons so far: Delhi has won both their matches hitherto, whereas Gujarat suffered defeats in their two games.
The major reason for GT’s underperformance this season is the lack of contribution from the top 3; the trio was so significantly effective last season that it powered them into the playoffs without much help from other batsmen.
Buttler has been in a terrible streak of late, especially at the T20 World Cup, where he averaged only 10.87!
He began the IPL 2026 with scores of 38 and 26 and looked to return to his best. He gained full fluency and confidence during his sizzling knock against Delhi as he hammered 52 runs off 27 balls.
Buttler’s innings comprised three fours and five sixes, including his trademark scoop shot six off Mukesh Kumar.
The Englishman seemed set for a huge score tonight, perhaps even a three-figure knock. However, his innings was cut short via a superb googly from Kuldeep Yadav.
Seeing the onslaught from Buttler, Axar Patel introduced his middle-overs trump card, Kuldeep, in the eighth over of GT’s innings, and the chinaman struck with his third delivery, getting the wicket of the dangerous GT no. 3.
Kuldeep bowled a half-tracker googly at a higher pace than his previous two balls. The length of the delivery, its pace, and flatter trajectory fooled Buttler, who played an ungainly slog on the back foot. He missed the ball completely, and the white rock thudded into the stumps to light them up and signal the end of Buttler’s manic innings.
DC vs GT: [Video] Kuldeep Yadav Bamboozles Jos Buttler With Sharp Googly
Earlier, Axar had won the toss and elected to bowl first on what is a flat Delhi pitch, which is expected to be full of runs. GT lost Sai Sudharsan early to Mukesh for only 12 runs, but Buttler commanded the rest of the powerplay before becoming Kuldeep’s victim.
Captain Shubman Gill returned to the side after missing the previous match due to a shoulder sprain. He started off cautiously but amped up his strike rate after Buttler’s dismissal. Gill reached his fifty in 33 balls, with Washington Sundar batting at 41* (23) at the time of writing, GT at 161/2 after 15 overs.
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