Opener Jos Buttler smashed a winning six to complete his hundred and power Rajasthan Royals to a six-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru, who could not cash in despite Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 113 earlier at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Saturday.
Buttler was on 94 when the scores were tied at 183. To the delight of the home supporters, he smashed Cameron Green for six to reach three figures, handing RR their fourth consecutive victory in IPL 2024. RR, chasing RCB’s 183/3, finished on 189/4 to win with five balls to spare.
Buttler’s century off 58 balls eclipsed a fine unbeaten hundred by Kohli, an IPL record-extending eighth. Buttler and skipper Sanju Samson (69 off 42b) made easy work of a stiff target to power Royals home and to the top of the points table. With his 113*, Kohli scored more than 60% of his team’s runs, but the lack of support from his power-hitters meant RCB were short of a target which would have tested Royals’ strong batting line-up.
Buttler and No.3 Samson put the loss of Yashasvi Jaiswal’s dismissal for a second-ball duck behind to raise an exhilarating partnership of 148 runs in 14.2 overs.
The England T20 captain raced to his fifty off 30 balls and Samson completed his half-century off 33 balls. The two were particularly severe on left-arm spinner Mayank Dagar. Buttler set the tone by targetting Dagar in the final over of the powerplay to plunder 20 runs — Royals were 54/1 after six overs.
The two set up the chase by taking the total to 95/1 after 10 overs to bring down the equation to 89 off 60 balls.
When Dagar was brought on for his second over, 11th of the innings, Samson smashed two fours and a majestic six over cover to bring up his fifty in style.
The big positive for the home side was Buttler’s return to form. Finding his range, he opened up with a trademark scoop over the keeper in the fourth over bowled by Mohammed Siraj, following it up with two fours off Yash Dayal in the fifth before thrashing Dagar. There was no stopping him thereafter.
Siraj got the breakthrough at the total of 148, having Samson caught on the boundary.
KOHLI’S CENTURY
Kohli had not scored an IPL fifty at the venue as he came on to open after RCB were put into bat. He rectified that but result was another proof of how much the T20 game has changed. Kohli’s hundred was the joint slowest century in IPL, off 67 balls. He gave his all, but RCB’s middle order of Glenn Maxwell, Green and Saurav Chauhan flopped
After his 125-run opening partnership with Du Plessis, Kohli was left waging a lone battle. He continued his superb start to the tournament, stretching his lead as top run-getter by getting to 316 runs (avg 105.33, S/R 146.29).
He looked to play the field by latching on to any error in line and length. He went particularly hard against the pacers, getting 67 off 39 balls at a strike rate of 171.79. Against spin, he got 46 off 33 balls at 139.39, though three of his four sixes came against the spinners.
The reason for his slowdown against spinners was mainly because of how well Yuzvendra Chahal and R Ashwin bowled. Chahal was the most successful bowler with two wickets for 34 runs. Ashwin failed to pick a wicket but bowled with great control to finish with figures of 4-0-28-0. He didn’t concede a single boundary in his first three overs, starting with a three-run over in the Powerplay. The only boundary hit off his bowling came on the last ball of his spell when Saurav Chauhan latched on to a flat delivery to hammer over midwicket.
After his 3/11 in the previous game against Mumbai Indians at the start of the week, Chahal gave another masterful display. He was getting turn and variable bounce and the batters were unable to force the pace against him. He provided the opening breakthrough by having Du Plessis caught in the deep.
RCB have lost four matches with just one win.
