Buttler creates shocking IPL record with five ducks

Rajasthan Royals' star Jos Buttler had made a strong start to the 2023 season of the Indian Premier League, much like his franchise. As the season proceeded, however, both faced inconsistency in their performances; while Royals are all but out of race for playoffs, Buttler has registered a rather unwanted IPL feat. After he was dismissed on 0 in the side's last league game against Punjab Kings on Friday night, he recorded the most number of ducks in a single season (5).

Buttler had scores of 54, 19, 79, and 52 in the first four games for Royals in this season; however, his performances dropped following the fourth game, as he could register only one more 50+ score (95 against Sunrisers Hyderabad). In the next 10 games, Buttler had five ducks to his name; the most for a player in the season.

Herschelle Gibbs (Deccan Chargers, 2009), Mithun Manhas (Pune Warriors India, 2011), Manish Pandey (Sunrisers Hyderabad, 2012), Shikhar Dhawan (Delhi Capitals, 2020), Nicholas Pooran (Sunrisers Hyderabad, 2021), and Eoin Morgan (Kolkata Knight Riders, 2021) all had four IPL ducks to their names in a season.

Buttler scored 392 runs in 14 matches in the season with a strike rate of 141.01.

Earlier, Sam Curran (49*) and Jitesh Sharma (44) revived the innings while Shahrukh Khan (41*) provided the late surge to power Punjab Kings to a competitive 187 for 5 against Rajasthan Royals in their final IPL league match in Dharamsala.

Asked to take the first strike, PBKS were down 50 for 4 but Curran and Jitesh added 64 to resurrect the innings.

The England all-rounder and Shahrukh then piled up 73 off 37 balls with 46 of them coming off the last 2 overs to take them to a good score. Both, PBKS and RR, however, can score maximum of 14 points which may not be enough to book a berth in the playoffs of the season.

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