CHENNAI: Jos Buttler's unbeaten century (107 not out) paved the way for Rajasthan Royal's thrilling two-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Tuesday.
Buttler's calculated assault left KKR bowlers high and dry. The English captain's self-belief and ability to play with the tail helped Rajasthan romp home in style. For KKR it was a case of so near so far. Sunil Narine's ton set the tempo for them, but a poor 19th over by Harshit Rana where he gave 19 runs cost them the match. Many of the top order batters for Rajasthan Royals got the start but never really got going at they kept losing wickets at the other end. Buttler kept strike for the last three overs to first take the game deep and later single-handedly won it for Rajasthan to complete highest successful chase in the history of IPL. This was Buttler's second ton of the season, both coming up while chasing.
Earlier, buoyed by the return of R Ashwin and Jos Buttler, Rajasthan opted to bowl. KKR began in earnest and when they were slowly trying to get familiar with the conditions, Phil Salt fell. After that, Sunil Narine forged a good partnership with Raghuvanshi and kept the scoreboard ticking. Narine is in good form and thus his confidence level is high. This has helped him choose the right delivery to assault.
Kuldeep Sen learnt the hard way as Narine carted a short ball from the Tamil Nadu speedster over mid wicket for a huge six, which had a lot of grace written over hit. Sanju Samson, in order to bring down the strike rate, brought in his experienced spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and R Ashwin. But it was of no use, Narine picked up boundaries at will of both Ashwin and Chahal. His six off Chahal that went straight over the bowler's head for a huge six into the stands was the shot of the evening.
In the next over, a huge six off Ashwin ringed in Narine's 50 and the team's 100-run mark. His 50 came off 31 balls.
It looked like Rajasthan had exhausted all their plans for Narine the batter. The West Indies all-rounder could judge the length of the ball early and could pick boundaries through the gaps as he brought up his century in 49 balls. Once he fell for 106, Rinku Singh hit an unbeaten 20 off nine balls to take KKR to 223/6.