In a thrilling showdown at the TATA IPL 2024, cricket fans witnessed an electrifying display of skill and determination as Rajasthan Royals clashed with the Kolkata Knight Riders at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The match was nothing short of a spectacle, with standout performances leaving spectators on the edge of their seats till the very last ball.
Unbeaten at home the Kolkata Knight Riders were put to bat first as Sanju Samson the skipper of the Rajasthan Royals won the toss and elected to field first against the home team. As anything to go by, the match started with a drama as the dangerous Phil Salt was dropped on 0 by Riyan Parag on Trent Boult's bowling. Trent Boult known with his specialty to always take at least a wicket in his first over would have had another one to his name.
Eventually Phil Salt was dismissed for 10(13) by a brilliant return reflex catch by Avesh Khan on his own bowling. KKR were going at a mediocre run rate until Sunil Narine and the Indian youngster Angkrish Raghuvanshi started with their attacking approach and completed their 50 run partnership in just 26 balls. Sunil Narine also reached to his 50 in just 29 balls. After a strong partnership between these two, the Indian youngster Raghuvanshi was dismissed for a good 30 of 18 balls trying to clear the Third Man area for a maximum.
The captain Shreyas Iyer's low run at the TATA IPL 2024 continued as he was dismissed for just 10 of his 8 balls. But this doesn't seem to affect the West Indian Batter Sunil Narine as he was lost in his own world of batting, striking nearly all balls for boundaries.
Joined by his fellow countrymen Andre Russell in the middle, Sunil Narine completed his well deserved 100 in just 49 balls making him the only third KKR batter in the history of IPL to score a century alongside Brendon McCullum way back in the inaugural match of the IPL in 2008 vs RCB where he scored an unbeaten 158* and Venkatesh Iyer in the previous season of TATA IPL 2023 where he scored 100 vs the 5 time IPL Champions Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede stadium in a losing cause.
Sunil Narine's blistering knock came to an end as he was clean bowled by Trent Boult for 109 off just 56 balls. Rinku Singh nicely placed his finishing touch scoring 20 from his 9 deliveries and the KKR innings ended with 223 for their 6 wickets setting a decent par target of 224 for the Rajasthan Royals.
The Royal Chase
Rajasthan Royals kick started their chase with Yashasvi Jaiswal attacking Mitchell Starc and Vaibhav and eventually falling prey to Vaibhav edging to Venkatesh Iyer at slips as he departed for a quick 19 of 9 balls. On the other hand Jos Buttler kept scoring the odd boundaries keeping the run rate ticking.
Rajasthan Royals kept losing wickets on regular intervals with only few good batting cameos by Sanju Samson and Riyan Parag leaving Jos Buttler alone with lack of support at the opposite end. Varun Chakaravarthy, Sunil Narine and Harshit Rana were creating pressure by leading the wickets column.
Regular wickets forced Ravichandran Ashwin being promoted up the batting order which also didn't work out for the Royals as even Ashwin failed to create an impact. Tumbling with 121 for loss of 6 wickets In 12 overs, Jos Buttler was joined by the West Indian batter Rovman Powell. Jos Buttler completed his 50 in 36 balls. This knock faced few talkings as it was slow paced which has become a new trend now a days with increase in the batting strike rates of the modern day batsmen.
Jos Buttler and Rovman Powell started the Royal fight back from the 15th over when 70+ runs were required in the last 5 overs. Then came the match flipping over when Rovman Powell started attacking his fellow countrymen Sunil Narine by scoring much needed boundaries. But he eventually fell prey to Sunil Narine but the much needed big over was provided.
With 46 runs needed in the last 3 overs with no batting left in hand for Rajasthan Royals, it was all left to Jos Buttler to make it or to fail. Jos Buttler the lone standing Batter stood tall and started finding rhythm and started scoring at high pace with 4s and 6s.
Buttler sealed the match in the 19th over against Vaibhav scoring 19 runs in the over leaving just 9 runs to achieve in the last over. Buttler scored a 6 in first ball of the last over and completed his well deserved match winning fighting 100 in 55 balls. Needing just 3 in 5 balls Varun bowled well with 3 dots after the first ball 6 but eventually in the end a double and a 4 in last 2 balls respectively sealed the victory for the Rajasthan Royals retaining their top position of the TATA IPL 2024 Points Table.
Jos Buttler 107* (60)
1st 36 balls -> 50 runs
Next 24 balls -> 57 runs
This was also a record winning chase at the Indian Premier League by Rajasthan Royals beating their previous own record (same 224 vs Punjab in 2020) courtesy Jos Buttler masterclass.
Highest Run Chase in IPL
• 224 runs Rajasthan Royals vs Kolkata Knight Riders (2024)
• 224 runs Rajasthan Royals vs Punjab Kings (2020)
• 219 runs Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings (2021)
The match winning fighting knock of Jos Buttler gained a lot of appreciation around the world and the cricketing world. The knock which was being talked somehow negativity in middle of the match due to it's slow rate and struggling Buttler turned to be an redemptive ending for Jos Buttler as his conversion rate from his 50 to 100 overshadowed all the doubtful talks which were being talked earlier.
With a traffic of 200+ scores at the TATA IPL 2024, no target looks to be a 100% safe target. We have seen world record targets sets by the Sunrisers Hyderabad against the Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bengaluru with targets of 278 and 288 respectively. But, both the targets still gave Hyderabad nerves until the last over. Let alone this target of 224 which turned out to be a record winning chase of IPL History.
