Buttler century trumps Kohli 100 as Rajasthan down RCB

Jos Buttler’s controlled, occasionally brutal century from just 58 balls trumped Virat Kohli’s eighth IPL century as the Rajasthan Royals beat the Royal Challengers Bengaluru by six-wickets in their IPL match at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Saturday.

Replying to RCB’s 183-3, Buttler was in complete control throughout the run-chase, calm when necessary but with periodic moments of ferocious attack, reaching his century with the match-winning six from only 58 balls with nine fours and four sixes as the Royals won with 189-4 and five balls to spare.

Royals captain, Sanju Samson, was equally impressive with 69 from 42 balls (8x4, 2x6) in a partnership of 147 with Buttler which effectively sealed the result.

Earlier Kohli was the foundation on which RCB built a total of 183-3 after being asked to bat first and he was once again at his imperious best with 12 fours and four sixes as he finished with an unbeaten 113 from 72 balls playing the seamers and spinners with equal aplomb, his straight driving an especially pleasing facet of yet another memorable innings.

As good as Kohli was, the total always looked a little below ‘par’ and RCB’s notorious bowling weakness was exposed again with Mayank Dagar (2-0-34-0) and Himanshu Sharma (2-0-29-0) painfully expensive.

The Royals began the run chase with plenty of confidence after a disciplined bowling performance in which Proteas speedster Nandre Burger (4-0-33-1), Ravichandran Ashwin (4-0-28-0) and fellow spinner Yuzvendra Chahal (4-0-34-2) were particularly impressive.

Faf du Plessis was the ‘junior’ partner in RCB’s opening stand of 125 with Kohli and seemed poised to accelerate before slapping a drive against legspinner Chahal to Buttler at long on to depart for a fine 44 from 33 balls with a pair of fours and sixes.

Glenn Maxwell gave himself too much room in an attempt to drive Burger through the offside, was beaten for pace and bowled for just a single off three balls and Chahal claimed his second wicket when Saurav Chauhan (9) drove tamely to cover.

Big-hitting Australian Cameron Green failed to find the middle of the bat in the six balls he faced to finish with just five, boundaryless runs.

Teams:

Royal Challenger Bengaluru: Faf du Plessis (captain), Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Dinesh Karthik (wkt), Saurav Chauhan, Reece Topley, Mayank Dagar, Mohammad Siraj, Yash Dayal.

Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson (captain/wkt), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmeyer, R.Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Nandre Burger, Yuzvendra Chahal.