Jaipur: Rajasthan Royals' sublime form in the IPL 2024 continued as they defeated Royal Challengers Bengaluru with six wickets in a contest dominated by the batters. Jos Buttler scored unbeaten 100 runs to guide the team to a win with five balls to spare while Samson scored 69 runs during his stay at the crease. RR hunted down the target of 184 as a result with six wickets in hand.
Earlier in the day, RCB batted first and the opening pair provided a solid start. Virat Kohli (113 Not Out) and Faf du Plessis (44) stitched a 125-run stand for the opening wicket before the latter was dismissed by Yuzvendra Chahal. Kohli kept anchoring the innings but a couple of more wickets fell from the other end in the form of Glenn Maxwell and Saurav Chauhan. The team posted a 183/3 in the first innings thanks to Kohli's sublime knock.
- Over 16-19.1 (RR 189/4)
RCB have pulled some things back as RR lost three quick wickets in three back-to-back overs. However, Hetmyer struck a couple of boundaries during his stay at the crease and ensured a victory for RR. The game was very much in control of the chasing side and so the main interest was Buttler's 100 in last moments. The Englishman pulled a maximum over deep mid-wicket to finish the game and also complete his century. - Over 11-15 (RR 152/2)
Both the batters are going neck to neck as they have kept the scoring rate up and didn't let the bowler settle down. They kept finding boundaries and smashing sixes every now and then. Samson also reached his fifty and became the player with the most fifties (24) for Rajasthan Royals, surpassing former skipper Ajinkya Rahane's tally of 23 half-centuries. Buttler took on both the spinners and smashed them out of the park as both batters accumulated 29 runs off the 11th and 12th over bowled by spinners. However, Siraj picked a wicket of RR skipper Sanju Samson, who played one straight into the hands of Yash Dayal on the deep square-leg boundary. RR need 32 runs off the last five overs to secure a win. Will RCB be able to pull things back with this wicket of RR skipper Sanju Samson or will RR easily cross the finishing line? - Over 7-10 (RR 95/1)
Samson and Buttler continued to attack RCB bowlers and kept them under pressure. RCB have also introduced their impact player as Leg-spinner Himanshu Sharma came out to bowl his first over for the franchise in the IPL. Himanshu leaked some runs in his first over but almost picked a wicket of Sanju Samson, but Virat Kohli misjudged the catch and dropped it. Apart from him, no bowler looked threatening and never seemed like they were going to pick a wicket. Buttler, who was going through a lean patch, scored a fifty. RR have accumulated 41 runs off the last four overs. They need 89 runs off the last 60 balls. - Over 1-6 (RR 54/1)
It was going to be a decent power play for RCB as they had picked a wicket of Jaiswal on duck and then managed to restrict RR for 34/1 after five overs, but a gamble of bowling a spinner the last over of powerplay resulted against them. Buttler smashed three boundaries and a six and accumulated 20 runs off the over which helped the hosts to go past the 50-run mark. Buttler has scored more runs today than he did across his last six innings in the IPL (35 off 50, including three ducks). Overall, despite losing a wicket of Jaiswal when no runs were added on the scoreboard, Samson and Buttler forged a fifty partnership which helped to win the first phase of the second innings.