Cricket

Buttler’s 107* tops Narine’s 109 as Royals ace record chase against KKR

Rajasthan RoyalsAfter 16 overs of Royals’ innings, they needed 62 runs off 24 balls, six of which were to be bowled by Narine, who had not conceded a boundary up till then.With Powell gone, and no batter he could trust to hand the strike over to, this is where Buttler really shone. He smashed a six down the ground first ball of Starc’s last over, before swivel-pulling him around the corner for four later in the over. Starc did not help himself by bowling five wides soon after, either.As good as Buttler was, though, Narine was the game’s MVP – he just had less support from his team-mates. Though known as a powerplay aggressor, he let Phil Salt and Angkrish Raghuvanshi take the lead early on, before blooming in the middle overs against the spinners. He smacked R Aswhin for two sixes, and Yuzvendra Chahal for three, as both those bowlerse conceded in excess of 12 an over.

It was Narine’s fours, though, that truly powered his innings. He hit 13 of them, all but four of them on the off side.

Although Narine had been impressive through the middle overs, he also accelerated towards the death. He hit 35 runs off the last 14 balls he faced. Most impressively, he motored from 79 to KKR’s third IPL hundred in the space of one Chahal over, in which he crashed two sixes and two fours.

Rinku Singh provided some closing fireworks to the KKR innings, but Narine’s best stand had been the 85-run second-wicket partnership with Raghuvanshi, who made only 30 of those runs. Such was Narine’s early dominance.