Jos Buttler celebrated his 100th IPL match with a 58-ball century to return to form and lead Rajasthan Royals to their fourth win in four games in IPL 2024. Jos Buttler got to the mark in style by hitting the winning runs – a six over midwicket – to finish unbeaten on 100, and his 148-run stand with Sanju Samson (69 in 42) for the second wicket set up the chase.
Jos Buttler’s unbeaten sixth IPL ton – achieved off the last ball of the chase – and Sanju Samson breezy half-century helped Royals over the line with five balls to spare at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Saturday. Virat Kohli’s eighth IPL century went in vain as Rajasthan Royals secured a comfortable six-wicket win to go four-from-four at the start of IPL 2024. It was the third time that Kohli’s IPL century came in a losing cause
Pitch and Toss.
This has been a 180-kind of a surface. A big venue though. 69m and 63m square boundaries and 76m down the ground. It’s a hard surface with a bit of grass cover on it, looks well prepared. You’ll get high scoring games at this venue and the batters will relish batting here. Something in it for the fast bowlers as they’ll get some extra bounce with the new ball. The spinners will get some turn as well. It looks a bit patchy with a few dry areas. The big boundaries are an encouraging sign for the spinners. Win the toss, bat first, reckons Deep Dasgupta.
Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson won the toss and opted to field with no changes in the playing 11. Royal Challengers Bengaluru skipper Faf Du Plessis batting first left out Mahipal Lomror and added new batter Saurav Chauhan to the squad.
Virat Kohli the lone hero for RCB in the batting.
Put in to bat, RCB needed their opening pair to get some runs, but it was meant to be a challenge against the team that was averaging three powerplay wickets per game. However, Trent Boult and Nandre Burger could not get the early breakthrough, and the Kohli-du Plessis pair put on 53 in the powerplay.
The start was promising for RCB since du Plessis survived the powerplay for the first time this season and Kohli looked fluid at his worst IPL venue (he averaged 21.90 in Jaipur before this game). Kohli was the majority contributor in their 125-run opening stand, scoring 72 compared to du Plessis’ 44 before the latter fell in the 14th over.
As he peppered boundaries off the pacers through the leg side, in particular by flicking off his toes through midwicket, Kohli also used his feet against Yuzvendra Chahal, the best Royals bowler, hitting him for two sixes. He saved his best for Avesh Khan, whom he struck for three fours through the off side in the 16th.
Kohli then reached his ninth T20 century and eighth in IPL in the 19th over off Burger, before launching into Avesh again with two fours in the 20th to finish with a career-best IPL score of 113. He contributed 61.70% of runs for RCB and was one of two players batters in the innings to reach double-digits in a total of 183 for 3.
Chahal, Ashwin outbowls RCB’s spinners
It was an unusual bowling effort from Royals. They did not take a powerplay wicket, and Boult’s ineffectiveness up top meant it was the first game where he did not bowl a third over in the powerplay. It was then that Samson turned to Ashwin and Chahal consecutively. Together, they went for 62 in eight overs – economy of 7.75. Their array of tricks kept a well-set Kohli, and others like du Plessis, Cameron Green and Glenn Maxwell fairly quiet.
Kohli’s century propels RCB to 183 for 3.
There have been better and more fluent centuries Kohli has scored in the IPL. His innings was littered with shots that he couldn’t time as well as he would’ve liked partly down to the slightly tacky nature of the pitch in the first half of the match. There was ample intent to attack, but not every shot proved as effective as he would’ve liked. It took him 67 balls to reach the three-figure mark, the joint-slowest by anyone in IPL history.
However, while he got off to a strong start and maintained their scoring rate, Kohli mentioned after his innings that it was decided that the pitch wasn’t as flat as it seemed from the outside and that they were forced to recalibrate the attempted total from 190 to 180 with one of the set openers batting till the end. Royals were also clever with their tactics. The pacers took the pace off consistently and bowled the short of good length, while the spinners also varied their pace and forced the batters to hit towards the longer boundary.
As he peppered boundaries off the pacers through the leg side, in particular by flicking off his toes through midwicket, Kohli also used his feet against Yuzvendra Chahal, the best Royals bowler, hitting him for two sixes. He saved his best for Avesh Khan, whom he struck for three fours through the off side in the 16th.
Kohli then reached his ninth T20 century and eighth in IPL in the 19th over off Burger, before launching into Avesh again with two fours in the 20th to finish with a career-best IPL score of 113. He contributed 61.70% of runs for RCB and was one of two players batters in the innings to reach double-digits in a total of 183 for 3.
Every now and then, Kohli did manage to hit a few boundaries. He was particularly good against Avesh Khan in the death overs, slicing his yorker square of the wicket, flicking him through mid wicket, hitting straight down the ground and even through the cover region – all for boundaries. However, he didn’t get similar success against Burger in the end overs and the refusal to pick the extra runs while nearing his century ensured that RCB were restricted to 183 for 3 even though Kohli registered his joint-highest T20 score.
RCB started well having Jaiswal but Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson had other plans
Early on, there were signs that they could trouble RR on a pitch that Kohli had claimed wasn’t as flat as it looked. Reece Topley had Yashaswi Jaiswal top-edging a pull to mid off off the second delivery of the chase. Soon, Jos Buttler could’ve been caught and then run out. But RCB let both chances slip away. The Royals opener, who had been enduring a bit of a patchy form lately was looking scratchy early on in the chase. In the first four overs RR managed to score only 25 runs.
Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson dictated the run chase.
The signs of a counterattack had started in the fifth over, but it was in the last over of the powerplay that they truly went into overdrive, with Jos Buttler smoking Mayank Dagar for three boundaries and a six. The slip-ups from the RCB fielders were plenty. To add to it, even Kohli put down an opportunity to dismiss Samson on 28 when he dived forward but couldn’t hold on to a catch.
Samson, who was also slow to start off, went to the fifth gear in Dagar’s second over when he smashed the left-arm spinner for a six and two boundaries, and brought up his half-century in the process.
As the partnership flourished, RCB kept running out of ideas. While the two batters were quick to use deft touches to their advantage, they largely targeted the straight boundaries. In 86 balls, they put on a 148-run stand which almost sealed the fate of the contest. Samson fell in the 15th over pulling Siraj to the fine leg fielder, who took the catch barely a few inches from the boundary.
With scores of 11, 11, and 13, Jos Buttler came into the game needing to change his fortunes. More so after he saw Yashaswi Jaiswal fall for a duck to Reece Topley. Then came a trademark Jos Buttler scoop over wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik in the fourth over, his first boundary of the night.
Having got that one away, Jos Buttler survived a tough catching chance on 6 the next delivery. That, however, did now slow him down. He launched into Yash Dayal and then hit left-arm spinner Mayank Dagar for three fours and a six in a 20-run sixth over. With Samson also matching him shot for shot, Buttler reached his first fifty of the season in the tenth over.
Jos Buttler was especially strong against the inexperienced spinners Dagar and Himanshu Sharma. They often erred with their lengths, and he pounced on short balls by pulling over the leg side. He also pierced boundaries through the covers and ran down the pitch to hit both spin and pace down the ground.
On the other hand, take RCB’s two spinners: rookies Dagar and Himanshu. Dagar was traded in from Sunrisers for Shahbaz Ahmed and Himanshu is a product of RCB’s scouting system. In only four overs (two apiece) they conceded one more than the total given away by Ashwin and Chahal in eight.
They missed their lengths too many times, and when they got it wrong, Samson and Jos Buttler did not spare them. In all, 11 of their 24 balls went for either four or six, a clear determinant in Royals’ win with five balls to spare.
No twist in the tale for RCB as Jos Buttler’s ton propels RR to easy 6 wicket win.
Needing 32 runs off the last five overs, the hosts didn’t need to sweat too much. Parag was dismissed chipping to the short mid wicket fielder and Jurel edged a delivery down the legside to the ‘keeper, but RCB were left with too much to threaten the contest. Nonetheless, they managed to take it to the last over, which seemed highly unlikely at the end of the 14th over, where they were left defending only 38 runs with nine wickets in hand.
With one run needed off the last over, Jos Buttler smoked Green for a six over the deep mid wicket boundary to bring up his sixth IPL century and help RR over the line.
Presentations and Road Ahead
Faf Du Plessis the loosing skipper : I think we found the wicket tricky in the first innings. I thought 190 was a good score, think we could have added 10-15 runs max. Their spinners bowled well (in the middle overs), good decision by them to bowl first. With the dew batting got easier. Virat was playing well at the back end, with someone like Green coming in, you want to maximize those last overs. We tried to squeeze as hard as we can, but it was tricky to hit against the spinners.
It was easier to hit the seamers. The pitch definitely got better, you could feel it, the ball was skidding along nicely. We were excellent in the first four overs. I think that 20 runs over (from Dagar) took the momentum away and shifted the pressure back on us.
Not bowling Maxwell was because all right-handers were batting, so went to the left-handed spinner initially. With two right-handers at the crease, went to the left arm spinner and later got the leg spinner (Himanshu Sharma) into the attack.
There was no point of being defensive, we needed wickets. When we got Jaiswal out, I didn’t feel the need to go to Maxwell. Fielding was average, it’s something we have spoken about, we’ll work and try to improve. Not worried about catches, it’s about showing intensity on the field.
Sanju Samson the winning skipper : Anything below 190 with a little bit of dew, with the batting order we have, it was a good score to chase. Touchwood, a few games to go, they are doing well, four days of gap, allows people to recover, rest, train and allows you to come charged up for a game. Bowling is 9 and batting is 8.7. [on Buttler] Just about time, if he gets through the powerplay, and if he hits it, very happy for him and very happy for the team.
Jos Buttler for his 100 got Player of the Match said : Had a little bit of luck, did not time it well, just got over the rope, delighted with the win. However long you’ve played the game, you still have those anxieties and stresses. The mind is a powerful thing, just keep digging in, keep working hard and you need a little bit of luck along the way.
At some point it will be okay and sometimes you have to tell yourself it will be okay. I did feel really good in the last game, even though I got 13. I had a really good tournament in South Africa, I just felt like I needed one innings to put that to bed. We started the season really well, we have been together now for three seasons, we have got a good thing going, but we need to keep working hard and keep the momentum going.
This game may have gone to the last over but don’t be fooled. This was as easy a chase as anything you might have seen in this format. Jaiswal went for a duck but then it was the Samson and Buttler show. They started off by attacking Dagar in the last over of the powerplay – that over set the tone and from there RR never looked back. Every over had a boundary when Samson and Buttler were going. The RR skipper went and a couple of cheap wickets followed.
At the end the main interest was whether Buttler would get to a 100. Hetmyer’s boundary in the penultimate over made it difficult but Buttler completed the job to end it in a blaze of glory. The wicket played better in the 2nd innings but it was the same old story for RCB. Their bowling lacked penetration and except Topley the others looked ordinary.
Faf did not use Maxwell again, maybe considering the matchup against two right-handers in Samson and Buttler. The likes of Dagar and Himanshu barely made an impression. Familiar woes for RCB who slip to another loss. RR meanwhile remain unbeaten.