Jos Butler made half a century in his first innings since resigning as England’s Whiteball captain, but failed to prevent the Gujarat Titan from falling into an 11-run defeat by the Punjab King in the Indian Premier League.
Butler admitted that he “reached the end of the road” when he abandoned the captain in the Champions Trophy last month following the exit of England’s disappointing tournament.
After running a relatively lean score in British colours, Butler returned to what was like his fluent best as he hit 54 balls from 33 on his Titans debut.
The 34-year-old smacked four and two sixes in a deliberately breezed innings before making a full delivery from Marco Jansen to the stump.
However, the impressive total of 243-5 for Punjab will prove beyond Buttler and the rest of Titans, as Arshdeep Singh, who took 2-36, narrowed down his hopes of death.
Opener Sai Sudalsan scored the Titans’ top score with 74 off-balls on 41 balls, while Shahfan Rutherford and Shubmangill chipped in with 46 and 33 respectively.
Previously, Punjab captain Shreiyas Ayer provided the King’s total backbone with 42 balls and unbeaten 97 balls.
The knock in Indian batter Shreyas’ Kings debut was the best of his IPL career, featuring nine Six and Five Four, and appeared at a strike rate of 230.95.
Shreyas was unable to take part in the strike in the final of the Punjab innings – and gave the shot to make the maiden century as Shashank Singh finished with 23 runs and finished Mohammed Siraj with 44 of 16 balls.
Left-arm spinner Sai Kishore finished the Gujarat bowling offensive pick 3-30 from the 4th over.
