IPL 2018: Match 43, RR vs CSK, Review - Jos Buttler single-handedly keeps the Royals alive in the tournament

CSK players made mistakes under pressure as MS Dhoni lost his cool at times in the field.

Published - 11 May 2018, 23:58 IST | Updated - 11 May 2018, 23:58 IST

4 Min Read

Rajasthan Royals (RR) have once again managed to stay alive in the tournament with a thrilling victory over Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by 4 wickets. It was an absolutely special knock by Jos Buttler who played throughout the innings for his team and clinched the win. At one stage it looked like he has lost all the steam in him as he was struggling to even middle in the death overs. However, his presence until the last over won it for the Royals as they climbed to the fifth position in the points table now.

CSK won the toss and opted to bat first as they brought in Karn Sharma and Sam Billings with an anticipation that the surface will get slow as the game would progress. The hosts fielded in Pink Jerseys today as they wanted to create an awareness related to Cancer and handed a debut to Prashant Chopra as Ankit Sharma also got the first game of this season.

Raina and Watson power CSK

Ambati Rayudu, for a change, endured a failure this year and was castled by Jofra Archer in the third over itself only to bring Suresh Raina to the middle. The left-hander got going straight away as he smacked a couple of boundaries in the same over. It looked like he was in the mood to make a big score today as he unfurled his inside-out shots off the offie Krishnappa Gowtham as well. Raina also picked the googly from Ish Sodhi to hit a six against the turn over the wide long-on fence.

Meanwhile, Shane Watson who opened the innings had got settled and then started middling the ball to tonk the leggie Sodhi and Jaydev Unadkat out of the park. The duo looked to take the game away with a 86-run partnership in less than overs but Archer came back to bowl his second over and got the Australian after which Raina was dismissed in the very next over. The wickets brought the smiles back on to the faces of Royals’ fans as they were now aiming to restrict the Men in Yellow to a lower total.

MS Dhoni and Sam Billings then came together and took some time to get their eyes in as the ball was now gripping in the surface. But they found it tough to score runs at the backend of the innings courtesy some brilliant bowling from Archer and Unadkat. Though they managed to hit a couple of sixes, CSK could only add 57 runs in the last 7 overs to finish on 176 runs after 20 overs.

Buttler blazes off

Royals surprised everyone by sending Ben Stokes to open the innings along with Jos Buttler and the chase began in a unique fashion. While the latter faced the first couple of completely, it was only block and four or block and six. Despite that, he got them off to a flyer which was much needed even as Stokes’ furniture was disturbed by Harbhajan Singh. Soon the skipper Ajinkya Rahane returned to the hut as well as his misery continued with the bat. But Buttler was the man standing for them who was scoring boundaries at will.

By the time the powerplay came to an end, he had put an exhibition of all the shots in his kitty for the home crowd who were enjoying the onslaught. After the powerplay though things slowed down considerably even as Sanju Samson and Buttler concentrated on rotating the strike to the keep Royals ahead in the game. They added 46 runs for the third wicket but the game changed when there was a horrible mix-up between them with Samson sacrificing his wicket in the end.

Things got nervy in the end

With Buttler still in the middle, Royals were being backed to score 55 runs off the last 5 overs but Watson and David Willey together conceded only 17 runs which made CSK the favourites. The visitors were nailing their slower ones and yorkers perfectly as the set batsman was also struggling to hit boundaries. Stuart Binny showed his prowess with the bat for the first time but he was sent back to make things tougher for the hosts. Buttler tried his best but couldn’t middle even a single hit in the final few overs.

But Krishnappa Gowtham once again rose to the occasion and scored 13 runs off just 4 balls to bring down the equation to 12 runs in the last over. However, he was gone off the last ball of the penultimate over. But it was the Buttler show on the day and though he almost fainted, he smashed the most important six of the match to bring the Royals home and the victory which they desperately needed. He remained unbeaten on 95 in the end and was undoubtedly the Man of the Match for keeping his team alive in the tournament.