Jos Buttler smashed a century – his second of the season – and nullified Sunil Narine’s first triple-figure score in the tournament to pave the way for the joint-highest run-chase in IPL history. Narine’s reprise of the opening role for KKR hit a new peak as the West Indian scored 109 off 56. KKR, backed up by their 200-plus total, looked set to usurp RR to the summit of the points table but were undone by a brilliant Jos Buttler, and a six-over mania at the end in which RR got 96 runs.
Jos Buttler started slightly slow as Rajasthan Royals (RR) aimed to travel at more than 11 an over, making only 25 off his first 18 balls. He was at the crease during what seemed like a debilitating mid-innings slowdown, in which Royals scored only 30 from six overs, and lost three wickets in that time. Buttler’s feat meant that Sunil Narine’s century, a staggering accomplishment in itself, was overshadowed. As were his figures of 2 for 30 off four overs.
Pitch and Toss Report
“There’s a disparity of 12 meters square of the wicket – 59m and 71m; down the ground – 75m. Expect the bowlers to be defending on the bigger side. We’ve seen some contrasting matches here so far – 208 narrowly defended, 161 quite easily chased. I think it (pitch) is pretty similar to what we saw the other day.
We thought 190 was par, that was a day game, this is a night game. There’s going to be some dew, it’s extremely humid out here as well. Both teams will be looking to chase. It’s a really good surface. You’ve got a lightning fast outfield, the boundaries are pretty consistent, nice even pitch, you want to bat at any stage. Maximize the new ball on a surface like this while it’s rock hard.” reckons Samuel Badree and Micheal Clarke.
Sanju Samson the RR skipper won the toss and chose to bowl. Jos Buttler and R Ashwin comes back to squad with Jos Buttler as impact player. Shreyas Iyer the KKR skipper batting first did not make any changes.
Steady Start for KKR as Sunil Narine a key in starting overs.
Phil Salt was offered a reprieve first over – a dropped catch by Riyan Parag at point – and then sent packing by a blinder of a return catch from Avesh Khan but KKR once again had a fantastic start to their batting innings. KKR were at 26/1 in 4 overs but then flew off the blocks.
Narine and the impressive Angkrish Raghuvanshi went hard, even against RR’s fantastic powerplay bowler Trent Boult to guide the side to 56/1 in 6 overs. Boult, who operated at an economy rate of 6.06 in the PowerPlay until this game, was hit for 24 runs in three overs. Narine went after Kuldeep Sen in the sixth over to get warmed up for the exceptional innings that was to follow.
A forgettable evening for RR spinners as Sunil Narine show takes over RR bowling.
KKR’s risk-taking opener maximized facing a bowler who he matches up well against in the middle-overs – R Ashwin. Heading into this game, Narine had hit 60 off 22 from Ashwin in the IPL. Tonight, he scored 34 off 17 – with four fours and two sixes. Ashwin set a packed off-side field with a long off, deep point and deep extra cover but the left-hander repeatedly pierced it. Ashwin even got a couple of dots by flirting with the wide line outside the off-stump. Even with those, he got the runs to dent RR in the middle.
Yuzvendra Chahal dismissed Shreyas Iyer to move to 199 IPL wickets, but finished with his worst IPL figures – of 1 for 54, after being taken apart by Narine – particularly in his last over where he conceded 23 runs. Ashwin’s returns of 0 for 49 were his second-worst – also stretching his wicketless streak to five games this season. In the eight overs between them, they conceded 103 runs at an economy rate of 12.87.
As good as Buttler was, though, Narine was the game’s MVP – he just had less support from his team-mates. Though known as a powerplay aggressor, he let Phil Salt and Angkrish Raghuvanshi take the lead early on, before blooming in the middle overs against the spinners. He smacked R Ashwin for two sixes, and Yuzvendra Chahal for three, as both those bowlers conceded in excess of 12 an over.
It was Narine’s fours, though, that truly powered his innings. He hit 13 of them, all but four of them on the off side. Although Narine had been impressive through the middle overs, he also accelerated towards the death. He hit 35 runs off the last 14 balls he faced. Most impressively, he motored from 79 to KKR’s third IPL hundred in the space of one Chahal over, in which he crashed two sixes and two fours.
Rinku Singh provided some closing fireworks to the KKR innings, but Narine’s best stand had been the 85-run second-wicket partnership with Raghuvanshi, who made only 30 of those runs. Such was Narine’s early dominance.
RR’s marginally better returns at the death as KKR propels to 223 for 6 .
After Narine brought up his century in the 16th over, the stage was set for Andre Russell to punish RR further. Avesh came back to deny the big West Indian a late flourish, getting him caught at extra cover by Dhruv Jurel for a 10-ball 13. Only seven runs came off that over, and the next from Boult, which also included the wicket of Narine. Rinku Singh and Venkatesh Iyer however, hit 25 off the last two overs to take KKR to 223/6.
RR fly early as Jos Buttler holds one end.
Jos Buttler and Riyan Parag got the start the visitors needed in a chase as daunting as this one, as they amassed their best PowerPlay score of the season – 76/1. Yashaswi Jaiswal had another underwhelming outing and Sanju Samson fell after a couple of promising, but Parag continued to bring his audacious batting to the middle in the company of Jos Buttler.
Parag outpaced Jos Buttler as he took down Harshit Rana, and Vaibhav Arora in a 23-run over in the sixth. Parag was particularly brutal against Rana but fell to the bowler’s slower one, with Andre Russell taking a good catch in the deep.
The middle lull (that didn’t hurt eventually) for RR chase as Rovman Powell takes charge.
RR lost three wickets but still had 98 runs on the board in 8 overs, staying on course in the big chase. Sunil Narine then changed that by trapping Dhruv Jurel leg before in the ninth over. R Ashwin was once again promoted up the order, but he struggled to provide a push in the scoring while Jos Buttler too went through a phase where he struggled to middle the ball.
KKR spinners used the sticky pitch to make shot-making difficult as RR limped to 121/4 in 12 overs, needing 103 off the last 8 overs. Varun Chakravarthy, who was in the middle of a stirring spell, dismissed Ashwin and Shimron Hetmyer off successive deliveries to put KKR on course to finish the night on top of the points table. Jos Buttler, however, had other ideas.
The last three overs as Jos Buttler went berserk to carry RR to record win.
With Powell gone, and no batter he could trust to hand the strike over to, this is where Jos Buttler really shone. He smashed a six down the ground first ball of Starc’s last over, before swivel-pulling him around the corner for four later in the over. Starc did not help himself by bowling five wides soon after, either.
Then, with 28 required off 12, Jos Buttler clobbered three sixes and a four off the next seven balls, never losing strike. With the requirement down to three off five, he bided his time. He collected two off the penultimate ball, then pierced a packed infield with a leg-side clip last ball to see RR to their sixth win this season, and arguably their most hard-earned one.
Presentations and Road Ahead.
Shreyas Iyer the loosing skipper said : (Was this game a bitter pill to swallow?) I would second that actually, emotions were a roller coaster, certainly didn’t think we will get into this situation. It’s a funny game at the end of the day, he was striking the ball cleanly and timing them so well, have to take it on the chin and move on.
I mean at this point of time you see that you bowl your best deliveries, a little bit hit or miss and you are sent out of the ground, it’s good that it happened now rather than it happening in the later stages of the tournament, good learning for us. (On Sunil Narine)
He is a great asset to the team and he is showing it every game, he is that kind of player who capitalizes on each and every moment. I’m glad that he is a part of our team. Since he was striking it so well, I thought let’s take pace off the ball and gave it to Chakravarthy and it’s high pressure when you have five fielders inside the circle, you basically don’t have idea where to bowl.
It’s just about relaxing and rejuvenating, it was very humid as well today. It’s important to learn from our mistakes and bounce back. We have a few days break. At the end of the day, it was a great game, a few overs here and there but I’m really proud of the boys.
Sanju Samson the winning skipper said : Very happy with the win. We were wondering like the wickets we lost … six down and then Rovman came in and hit those couple of sixes and that’s when we felt like we were still in the game. It’s a beautiful way to come back, some luck also, it’s a very funny game.
They also played really well. Expected something similar, an exciting game tonight, very happy for it. The quality of spin which they had in Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy, they bowled really well.
This ground and the wicket actually was suiting them really well. We were wondering where can get those couple of sixes and that’s when Rovman came in. Jos did what he does for us from last 6-7 years, very happy for him. It (Buttler’s knock) should go right on top. Being an opener, if Jos gets in, we all know at the dug-out that he’ll be there till the 20th over. If he’s batting till the 20th over, no runs are unchasable. He does something special.
Jos Buttler Player of the Match for his match winning 100 said : Keep believing, that was the real key today. At times, felt like I was struggling a bit for rhythm. Actually have been watching the golf and I saw a guy called Max Holmes. Anytime the negative thoughts come, I think the complete opposite and dare to dream. That’s what kept me going.
At times you feel frustrated or you are questioning yourself. I was trying to tell myself it’d be okay, keep going, you’ll get your rhythm back and try to stay calm.
There’s been plenty of times throughout the IPL, you’ve seen crazy things happen. Guys like Dhoni and Kohli, the way they stay till the end and keep believing, you’ve seen it so many times in the IPL and I was trying to do the same. That’s something Kumar Sangakkara has told me a lot – there’s always a little breaking point. The worst thing you can do when you are not feeling your best is to fight it and try to force the issue and give your wicket away.
He just tells me to stay there and at some point, the momentum will change or you’ll find your rhythm or one shot will get you going. That’s been a big part of my play over the last few years – try to stay the course and not get in my own way. (His greatest IPL innings?) I would think so. Anytime you’re not out at the end to see your team through, especially off the last ball, in a big run-chase, very satisfying.
Sunil Narine smashed a spectacular hundred – his first in IPL – earlier as KKR posted a big total of 223 on the board. In reply, Jaiswal came out all guns blazing trying to hit boundaries off every ball but he was nipped out by Vaibhav Arora for a 9-ball 19. Samson got a reprieve on 2 and struck back-to-back fours after that but Harshit Rana induced a mishit from the RR captain. Vaibhav conceded 23 off his 3rd over and RR ended up scoring 76/2 at the end of the powerplay (20 runs more than KKR). Parag took the attack to the KKR bowlers.
The duel between Harshit Rana and Parag was fascinating. After conceding a couple of boundaries with pacy balls, the pacer deceived the in-form batter with a slower delivery. That triggered the slide for the visitors. Jurel was trapped by Narine and the move to send Ashwin at six didn’t work.
The scoring rate dipped significantly and Chakravarthy picked back-to-back wickets (Ashwin and Hetmyer). Rajasthan scored just 30 runs in the 6-over phase in the middle overs (8-14). With 96 runs needed off 36 balls, KKR would have been the happier side. But RR didn’t give up.
Buttler struck four boundaries in an over against Chakravarthy. The following over, bowled by Russell, also went for 17. Narine hadn’t conceded a single boundary this season at this venue and he was up against Powell in the 17th over. Rovman smashed 4 6 6 against the mystery spinner. He eventually perished in the same over but his knock provided the much-needed impetus for the tourists.
RR needed 46 runs off the last 3 overs and it was eventually KKR vs Buttler!. The Englishman, who was on 42 off 33 at one stage, showed what an asset he is in this format. Buttler scored 42 off the last 46 runs to take his team over the line. Came back from illness, batted 20 overs in humid conditions and hit the winning runs off the final ball even though he hardly had anything left in the tank. Just incredible!
KKR have a few days to lick their wounds and return strongly in the afternoon game on Sunday (April 21) against a struggling RCB at home. RR head back to Jaipur and host MI on Monday (April 22).