Buttler's heroics keep Rajasthan Royals alive in IPL11

Back to winning ways after a hat-trick of defeats, a desperate Rajasthan Royals face a herculean task when they take on mighty Chennai Super Kings in a must-win Indian Premier League (IPL) match, here.

Rajasthan Royals rode a heroic batting effort by Jos Buttler to edge out Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by four wickets in a nail-biting Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium here on Friday.

Buttler batted through the innings to help Rajasthan overhaul a stiff 177-run target with just one ball to go.

Needing 12 off the last over, Buttler smacked Dwayne Bravo's fourth delivery over mid-wicket for a six and then scampered home for a double to finish the match.

The Last Over Action

Jos Buttler's last over madness https://t.co/aNDhjqoZPe via @ipl

Fabulous knock from Jos... Crucial cameo from #KGowtham...#VIVOIPL #RRvCSK

— Suhas M S (@suhas_ms) May 11, 2018

Having opened the Rajasthan innings along with England star Ben Stokes, Buttler continued to defy the CSK bowlers even as wickets fell at the other end. He remained unbeaten on 95 runs off just 60 balls, hitting 11 boundaries and a couple of sixes along the way.

Despite the defeat, CSK continue to hold on to the second spot with 14 points from 11 matches. They trail league leaders Sunrisers Hyderabad by four points. Rajasthan are eighth in the 10-team table with 10 points from 11 matches.

In an edge-of-the-seat affair that went right down to the wire, it was Buttler who gave the Rajasthan innings a powerful start by hitting David Willey for consecutive boundaries off the opening three balls. He hit Harbhajan Singh for two boundaries and a six in the next over.

Ben Stokes was also in good touch at the other end and seemed set to end his run of lean form when he hit Harbhajan Singh for a six over mid-wicket in the fourth over.

But the veteran off-spinner had his revenge in the very next ball when the Englishman went for another big hit but the incoming delivery managed to find the gap between bat and pad to disturb the stumps.

Ravindra Jadeja then dismissed Rajasthan captain Ajinkya Rahane in the next over to put Chennai in the driver's seat.

Buttler and Sanju Samson then tried to steady the innings, adding 45 runs between them off the next seven overs before the latter was run out following a horrible mix-up.

Prashant Chopra then handed an easy catch to Dwayne Bravo at short mid-wicket off a rather ordinary delivery from Shardul Thakur as Chennai gradually started to gain the upper hand.

Stuart Binny also failed to last long as Chennai seemed destined for another win.

With 28 runs needed off 12 deliveries, it was Krishnappa Gowtham who gave the chase some much needed momentum with a power packed innings that produced 13 runs off just four balls. All those runs came in the penultimate over as he smashed Willey for two sixes.

But a careless shot saw him hand an easy top edge to Mahendra Singh Dhoni behind the stumps off the last ball of the over as the visitors seemed to take the upper hand once again going into the final over.

All that changed in the nail biting last over. Fittingly, it was Buttler who hit the winning runs.

With 10 runs needed off the last four deliveries, the visitors missed a great chance when Buttler tried to hit Dwayne Bravo for a six but the ball skied up off the toe end of the bat.

But there was no one to in position to take the catch as Buttler ran for two runs. The England star punished the visitors for that dropped chance with a six into the stands beyond the mid-wicket boundary.

An overthrow in the next ball allowed him to complete the victory as the Rajasthan dugout erupted in celebration. 

Chennai Super Kings innings

Suresh Raina struck his 34th half-century in IPL as Chennai Super Kings posted a competitive 176 for 4 against Rajasthan Royals, here tonight.

CSK's most consistent performer over the years, Raina struck 52 off 35 balls with the help of six boundaries and a six, adding 86 runs for the second wicket with veteran Shane Watson (39 off 31 balls).

The duo provided the platform for skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni to launch a final assault smashing 33 off 23 balls in company of Sam Billings (27 off 22 balls).

The duo added 55 runs in 6.4 overs to take the team's total past 175-run mark.

For Royals, Jofra Archer (2/42 in 4 overs) was the most successful bowler even though he got hit towards the end. Leg-spinner Ish Sodhi (1/29 in 4 overs) was the most impressive as he got Raina with a googly which the southpaw tried to slog sweep against the turn.

CSK's top run-getter Ambati Rayudu (12) started off with a couple of boundaries before being played on to a delivery that was kicking up from back of the length.

However Raina batted in his inimitable style along with Watson as they scored runs at a comfortable pace.

Raina started by clipping Archer off his pads to the square leg boundary. In the same over, he got his second boundary with a square drive.

In the next over, he got a couple of more boundaries with a cut and a cover drive off Krishnappa Gowtham. The fifth boundary was a short arm pull over mid-wicket off Ben Stokes.

With Powerplay overs yielding 55 runs, there was a period when CSK did't get a boundary for 21 balls before Ish Sodhi's over (ninth of the innings) helped the duo break shackles.

Watson pulled a Sodhi half-tracker over deep mid-wicket for a six while Raina slog swept the bowler for same result in that particular over, which fetched 16 runs.

Watson, who didn't play too many big strokes got into the groove to hit the out-of-form Jaydev Unadkat (0/34 in 4 overs) for a six over deep mid-wicket.

Watson was finally taken by Archer, who bowled a short one that got big on the batsman and his attempted pull-shot went high up in the air before Jos Buttler caught it.

Once Raina was gone, Dhoni and Billings did their bit to take CSK to a reasonable total.

Toss

Chennai Super Kings won the toss and elected to bat first at the Sawai Man Singh stadium in Jaipur. 

The MS Dhoni-led side have opted to drop South Africa pace sensation Lungi Ngidi and Dhruv Shorey and have drafted back Karn Sharma and Sam Billings in the playing XI.

The hosts, on the other hand, have made one change with Priyank Chopra making his debut as Ankit Sharma sits out.

Teams

RR playing XI: A Rahane, J Buttler, S Samson, B Stokes, S Binny, K Gowtham, P Chopra, J Archer, A Sharma, J Unadkat, I Sodhi

CSK playing XI: S Watson, A Rayudu, S Raina, MS Dhoni, S Billings, DJ Bravo, R Jadeja, D Willey, H Singh, S Thakur, K Sharma

Preview

Back to winning ways after a hat-trick of defeats, a desperate Rajasthan Royals face a herculean task when they take on mighty Chennai Super Kings in a must-win Indian Premier League (IPL) match, here.

Three consecutive defeats have more or less sealed their fate but Royals somehow managed to keep themselves afloat with a 15-run win over Kings XI Punjab in their last game here.

But for things to turn around for the Royals, every aspect of their game needs to improve and click for them in the remaining four games.

Friday’s match would also provide Royals a chance to avenge their 64-run loss to CSK at Pune in their previous encounter.

The Rajasthan outfit didn't have the best of campaigns so far this season and are placed sixth with just eight points from 10 games.

Standing precariously, the Ajinkya Rahane-led side need to win tomorrow to keep alive their play-off chances. A defeat will definitely end their hopes.

 The hosts are back on their home turf, where they have recorded three of their four victories and this might work for Royals going into tomorrow's crucial game.

Royals were badly hurt by the lackluster performance of their batsmen and bowlers this season.

Average performance by captain Rahane and Sanju Samson and below-par show of star English all-rounder Ben Stokes and Rahul Tripathi has hurt Royals badly and the hosts need its batting unit to fire in unison against the formidable CSK.

English wicket-keeper batsman Jos Buttler came to Royals' rescue in their last match smashing a 58-ball 82 to take the hosts to 158 for eight, a target which their bowlers defended, thanks to impressive performances from Krishnappa Gowtham, Kiwi spinner Ish Sodhi and Jofra Archer.

CSK, on the other hand, are sitting pretty at the second spot with 14 points from 10 games and a win from their remaining four games would be enough to seal their place in the play-offs.

Returning to the tournament after serving a two-year suspension, CSK are in red-hot form this season under talismanic skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Their batsmen are in top form but bowling still remains a concern for CSK, despite a fine performance against Royal Challengers Bangalore in their last game.

CSK bowlers finally came to the party on May 5, restricting RCB to 127 for nine, a target which they chased down with six wickets in hand.

Left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja (3/18) and veteran Harbhajan Singh (2/22) were the wrecker-in-chief for CSK against RCB.

However, the pace trio of Lungi Ngidi, David Willey and Shardul Thakur needs to take up more responsibility upfront in the absence of injured Deepak Chahar.

The Chennai batsmen, though, are on song and most are among runs with Ambati Rayudu, Australian Shane Watson, West Indian Dwayne Bravo, skipper Dhoni and Suresh Raina all contributing when the team needed them.

Rayudu, especially, has batted well both as an opener and at number four,  and is currently at the third position in the run-scorers chart with 423 runs from 10 games.

Skipper Dhoni, on his part, has reminded his critics that he is not past his prime with his trademark towering sixes.

Dhoni is seventh on the run scorers list with 360 runs that include three half-centuries with 79 not out being the highest.

Teams: (from)

Rajasthan Royals: Ajinkya Rahane(c), Ben Stokes, Stuart Binny, Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, Rahul Tripathi, D Arcy Short, Krishnappa Gowtham, Jofra Archer, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaydev Unadkat, Ankit Sharma, Anureet Singh, Shreyas Gopal, Prashant Chopra, Sudhesan Midhun, Ben Laughlin, Mahipal Lomror, Aryaman Birla, Jatin Saxena, Dushmantha Chameera,  Heinrich Klaasen, Ish Sodhi.

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni (C), Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Faf du Plessis, Harbhajan Singh, Dwayne Bravo, Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, KM Asif, Kanishk Seth, Lungi Ngidi, Dhruv Shorey, Murali Vijay, Sam Billings, Mark Wood, Kshitiz Sharma, Monu Kumar, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Imran Tahir, Karn Sharma, Shardul Thakur, N Jagadeesan, David Willey.