Sports
Buttler’s sixth ton trumps Kohli’s eighth as Royals go four-from-four
Virat Kohli’s eighth IPL century went in vain as Rajasthan Royals secured a comfortable six-wicket win to go four-from-four at the start of IPL 2024. It was the third time that Kohli’s IPL century came in a losing cause as Jos Buttler’s unbeaten sixth IPL ton – achieved off the last ball of the chase – and Sanju Samson breezy half-century helped Royals over the line with five balls to spare at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Saturday.
There have been better and more fluent centuries Kohli has scored in the IPL. His innings was littered with shots that he couldn’t time as well as he would’ve liked partly down to the slightly tacky nature of the pitch in the first half of the match. There was ample intent to attack, but not every shot proved as effective as he would’ve liked. It took him 67 balls to reach the three-figure mark, the joint-slowest by anyone in IPL history.
He got going smoothly early on though, dictating terms in the powerplay. The acceleration began in the second over when he hit Nandre Burger over the mid on region for a boundary and then flicked another four through square leg. The region between deep square leg and deep mid wicket proved to be his most productive area from where he picked up nearly three-fourth of his runs. He even pulled Burger for a six in the pacer’s next over and provided RCB a strong start.
However, while he got off to a strong start and maintained their scoring rate, Kohli mentioned after his innings that it was decided that the pitch wasn’t as flat as it seemed from the outside and that they were forced to recalibrate the attempted total from 190 to 180 with one of the set openers batting till the end. Royals were also clever with their tactics. The pacers took the pace off consistently and bowled the short of good length, while the spinners also varied their pace and forced the batters to hit towards the longer boundary.
Every now and then, Kohli did manage to hit a few boundaries. He was particularly good against Avesh Khan in the death overs, slicing his yorker square of the wicket, flicking him through mid wicket, hitting straight down the ground and even through the cover region – all for boundaries. However, he didn’t get similar success against Burger in the end overs and the refusal to pick the extra runs while nearing his century ensured that RCB were restricted to 183 for 3 eventhough Kohli registered his joint-highest T20 score.
Faf du Plessis had got the innings going with a thumping drive over covers for four in the first over, and powered RCB to a fruitful opening partnership. Not only was it the first time this season that RCB had played out the powerplay without losing a wicket but they also blunted Royals’ attack, which had picked nine scalps in this period in their first three games.
In the company of Kohli, du Plessis added 125 runs for the opening wicket – the 47th century stand for the franchise and the second highest against Royals. While the RCB skipper was largely away from strike for most parts of the innings, he ensured the duo added more runs on the day and continued to score at rate of almost nine per over to set up a strong base for the rest of the batters to go on the offensive at the latter stage of the innings.
Interestingly, several of Royals’ better fielders made some mistakes. While Dhruv Jurel and Riyan Parag misfielded balls at the boundary, Trent Boult put down a sitter. However, the dropped catch didn’t prove too costly as du Plessis fell off the next ball, hitting flat to Jos Buttler at long on, despite it being a more than 70-meter shot. They even missed a few run out chances.
However, following the dismissal of du Plessis after scoring a 33-ball 44, Royals were quick to pounce on that opening, and ensured that the new batters didn’t have it any easier. After serving a couple of slower balls to Glenn Maxwell, Burger cleaned him up with a faster one. Saurav Chauhan’s debut wasn’t too noteworthy either as he was dismissed for a six-ball nine, offering a catch to Yashasvi Jaiswal at mid wicket, where he took it off a second attempt. Cameron Green’s attempt to muscle some big shots didn’t yield the desired result, as he could add only five runs in six deliveries.
Early on, there were signs that RCB could trouble RR on a pitch that Kohli had claimed wasn’t as flat as it looked. Reece Topley had Yashasvi Jaiswal top-edging a pull to mid off off the second delivery of the chase. Soon, Buttler could’ve been caught and then run out. But RCB let both chances slip away. The Royals opener, who had been enduring a bit of a patchy form lately was looking scratchy early on in the chase. In the first four overs RR managed to score only 25 runs.
Buttler and Samson dictated the run chase. The signs of a counterattack had started in the fifth over, but it was in the last over of the powerplay that they truly went into overdrive, with Buttler smoking Mayank Dagar for three boundaries and a six. The slip-ups from the RCB fielders were plenty. To add to it, even Kohli put down an opportunity to dismiss Samson on 28 when he dived forward but couldn’t hold on to a catch.
Samson, who was also slow to start off, went to the fifth gear in Dagar’s second over when he smashed the left-arm spinner for a six and two boundaries, and brought up his half-century in the process.
As the partnership flourished, RCB kept running out of ideas. While the two batters were quick to use deft touches to their advantage, they largely targetted the straight boundaries. In 86 balls, they put on a 148-run stand which almost sealed the fate of the contest. Samson fell in the 15th over pulling Siraj to the fine leg fielder, who took the catch barely a few inches from the boundary.
Needing 32 runs off the last five overs, the hosts didn’t need to sweat too much. Parag was dismissed chipping to the short mid wicket fielder and Jurel edged a delivery down the legside to the ‘keeper, but RCB were left with too much to threaten the contest. Nonetheless, they managed to take it to the last over, which seemed highly unlikely at the end of the 14th over, where they were left defending only 38 runs with nine wickets in hand.
With one run needed off the last over, Buttler smoked Green for a six over the deep mid wicket boundary to bring up his sixth IPL century and help RR over the line.
Brief Scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 183/3 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli 119*, Faf du Plessis 44; Yuzvendra Chahal 2-32, Nandre Burger 1-33) lost to Rajasthan Royals 189/6 in 19.1 overs (Jos Buttler 100*, Sanju Samson 69; Reece Topley 2-27, Mohammed Siraj 1-35) by 6 wickets
The first truly heavyweight clash of this expanded T20 World Cup format comes freighted with both history and subplots. A rematch of the 2010 World T20 final at Kensington Oval, the match pits Jos Buttler’s defending champions – who are aiming to become the first team to retain the trophy – against the Australian winning machine, victors at the 2021 edition and current world title-holders in Test and ODI cricket. And that’s before you throw in the Ashes for afters.
Already there is added pressure on England, after the rain in Bridgetown led to a share of the points in their opener against Scotland (and that having conceded 90 runs from 10 overs without taking a wicket in a tepid bowling display). Lose to their oldest rivals and it will leave their Super 8 prospects open to being waylaid by the perils of net run-rate calculations, or worse.
The Scotland match was the third abandonment in five suffered by England, after a rain-affected home series against Pakistan, which has clearly hampered their readiness for this campaign after almost six months without playing T20 together. It does not take much for a side to click in this format – and England looked in decent shape when they did get on the field against Pakistan – but Buttler will be anxious for things to go their way on Saturday, if only to avoid further questions referencing the team’s disastrous ODI World Cup defence last year.
Australia, under the laidback leadership of Mitchell Marsh would love nothing more than to add to the English sense of jeopardy – having helped bundle them out of the tournament in India on the way to taking the crown. Their head to head record is less impressive in T20 however, with England having won six of the last seven completed encounters, as well as that 2010 final.
Despite a wobble with the bat, Australia avoided mishap against Oman earlier in the week, the experience of David Warner and Marcus Stoinis shining through in difficult batting conditions. Surfaces in the Caribbean – not to mention those games staged in the USA – have already had teams scratching their heads; rather than the “slug-fest” England had prepared for, following a high-scoring tour of the Caribbean in December, it looks as if boxing smart may be the way to go.
Speaking of Warner, this could be the last time he faces up against England in national colours – and another match-winning contribution would likely reduce the chances of them meeting again in the knockouts. On the other side of the card is Jofra Archer, fresh from an emotional maiden outing at Kensington Oval and ready to take on Australia for the first time in any format since 2020. Can Mark Wood fire up England’s campaign, as he did during last summer’s Ashes? Will Pat Cummins be back to harass the old enemy once again? Seconds out, it’s almost time to rumble.
Cummins is set to return after being rested for the Oman game, which saw Mitchell Starc leave the field with cramp. Starc is understood to be fine and could keep his place – which would likely see Nathan Ellis miss out. Marsh is still not fit to bowl, with Australia likely to continue with the allrounder combination of Stoinis and Maxwell to give them cover.
Australia (probable XI): David Warner, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh (capt), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Inglis (wk), Tim David, Pat Cummins, Nathan Ellis/Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
The one change England may consider is Reece Topley coming in for Wood, with the expectation that there will be some rotation among the seamers through the course of the tournament.
England (probable XI): Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (capt & wk), Will Jacks, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Jordan, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley/Mark Wood
[Cricinfo]
Once is coincidence, twice is a clue, and three times is proof.
To paraphrase Agatha Christie, that is the narrative around South Africa’s meeting with Netherlands at this T20 World Cup.
The Dutch beat South Africa at the 2022 tournament and ended their semi-final hopes in a match where South Africa appeared to be sleep walking, and then beat them again at the 2023 ODI World Cup, where they exposed South Africa’s vulnerability in the chase. If they to do the treble, not only will Netherlands take the lead in Group D, but they will offer conclusive evidence of the threat they pose to Full Members, especially South Africa.
Of course, it will take some doing after South Africa’s opening performance against Sri Lanka, where they reduced their opposition to their lowest T20I total and chased it down in fairly straightforward fashion thanks to the most stable middle-order of their white-ball era. In Aiden Markram, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller, South Africa have bankers and big-hitters and, for this match, they also have the advantage of experience. They’ve already played at Eisenhower Park, and have first-hand knowledge that run-scoring doesn’t come easily;Klassen said they are prepared to use their “cricket brains” and play “smarter cricket”.
But the conditions could be good news for Netherlands, who are not naturally a line-up of big hitters and build their innings on a foundation of turning ones into twos. In other words, they tend to take a slightly more conservative approach to batting, which may work well here, but they’ll be wary of the uneven bounce of the surface and will have to come up with plans to counterattack especially against South Africa’s seamers. Their own bowlers were exemplary in Dallas and will look to build on that performance against a line-up that will likely be more proactive than Nepal’s, but who they have managed to keep quiet not once, but twice in the past. Third time’s the charm, they say.
Anrich Nortje’s stunning return to form against Sri Lanka means South Africa may not have to tinker with the bowling combination, and Gerald Coetzee and Tabraiz Shamsi may have to wait their turns to get a game. The batting line-up should be unchanged, with no space for Ryan Rickelton yet.
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markam, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Ottneil Baartman, Anrich Nortje
Conditions in New York may tempt Netherlands to include an extra seamer and they have Kyle Klein in their squad. But it could come at the expense of a shortened batting line-up and they may not want to risk that.
Netherlands: Michael Levitt, Max O’Dowd, Vikramjit Singh, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Scott Edwards (capt, wk), Bas de Leede, Teja Nidamanuru, Logan van Beek, Tim Pringle, Paul van Meekeren, Vivian Kingma
[Cricinfo]
Nuwan Thushara’s last over brought Sri Lanka screaming back into the match,as he first bowled Rishad Hossain, and then nailed Taskin Ahmed in front of the stumps with a pinpoint swinging yorker. This left Bangladesh eight wickets down, with 12 runs still to get.
However, the experienced Mahmudullah was at the crease for Bangladesh, and despite some further nervy moments, pushed Bangladesh across the line off the last ball of the 19th over.
But this was a match chiefly decided by Bangladesh’s own outstanding bowling. Mustafizur Rahman was the best among them, using shorter lengths and his cutters efficiently, to claim figures of 3 for 17. Rishad Hossain’s three-for through the middle overs also kept Sri Lanka quiet.
Mustafizur was instrumental in Sri Lanka’s downward spiral through the middle overs, which culminated in a crash-and-burn end. Ultimately, their inability to find boundaries, or even rotate strike against good Bangladesh bowling resulted in their downfall. A score of 125 for 9 always seemed poor on a decent pitch, even if their bowlers made a match of it in the end.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 125 for 8 in 19 overs (Towhid Hridoy 40, Litton Das 36; Dhanajaya de Silva 1-11, Nuwan Thushara 4-18, Wanidu Hasaranga 2-32, Matheesha Pathirana 1-27) beat Sri Lanka124 for 9 in 20 overs (Pathum Nissanka 47, Dhananjaya de Silva 21; Tanzim Hasan Sakib 1-24, Taskin Ahmed 2-25, Mustafizur Rahman 3-17, Rishad Hossain 3-22) by two wickets
[Cricinfo]
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