Shane Warne asked Ben Stokes to open the innings: Jos Butler

The Rajasthan Royals haven’t had a convincing IPL so far but they are still in the hunt for the playoffs spot. Steve Smith’s suspension was a huge setback for the side and his replacements haven’t made significant contributions so far. In the 2018 Auction, the franchise broke the bank to acquire Jaydev Unadkat and Ben Stokes but the duo has not yet brought out their A game. The team finds itself in a situation where it has to treat each game as a knockout.

On Friday, the Rajasthan Royals defeated the high flying Chennai Super Kings in a thrilling encounter. Jos Butler has reinvented himself after being promoted to the top of the order. He now has scored four consecutive fifties since his promotion and is seen demolishing the bowlers in the first six overs. The opening combinations haven’t quite worked for RR as they have tried several players at the top. In RR’s game against CSK, Ben Stokes was seen partnering Jos Butler at the top of the order.

A Royals Win

Jos Butler said that it was Shane Warne’s idea to send Ben Stokes at the top. At the halfway stage, Stokes was struggling with a hamstring and that affected his running. If he had batted in the middle overs, Stokes would’ve had to run hard to rotate the strike. Instead, he was given the license to go and play with freedom at the top.

“Shane Warne sort of said why don’t you go at the top and play with some freedom and try and see if that comes off because he felt like he was going to find it hard in the middle with his running. I kept nicking the strike off him at the top, but it was a nice experiment and I think Shane Warne has obviously been a proactive guy and thought why not, let’s try it.” Butler said in the post-match presentation.

However, the move did not work as Stokes scored only 11 runs before falling to Harbhajan Singh. The Royals needed someone to stay until the end and found a helping hand in Butler. The English player remained unbeaten on 95 to take his side through. Chennai Super Kings had put up a better-than-par score of 176 on the board but the Royals managed to edge out after some poor bowling efforts from the CSK bowlers.

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