Jos Buttler's manic mayhem was matched in equal measure by spin twins Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal as Rajasthan Royals beat Mumbai Indians by 23 runs in an IPL match on Saturday.
Buttler (100 off 68 balls) scored his second IPL ton off only 66 balls to help the Royals to 193 for 8, which seemed slightly sub-par due to Jasprit Bumrah's (3/17 in 4 overs) brilliant effort.
Ishan Kishan (54 off 43 balls) and unheralded N Tilak Verma (61 off 33 balls) added 81 in 8 overs before Ashwin (1/30 in 4 overs) and Chahal (2/26 in 4 overs) decisively tilted the game in RR's favour between overs 14 to 16 as MI managed only 170 for 8 after 20 overs.
Chahal was a little unlucky, however, as he was denied a hat-trick when he dismissed Tim David and Daniel Sams in the first two balls of his over. His third ball went straight towards Karun Nair, but he dropped it. There was a doubt whether the ball hit the bat or not, but the replay confirmed that it did.
The 31-year-old spinner rued after missing out on the first potential hat-trick of his career, but was happy with his side getting the win.
"(on the missed hat-trick) Felt a bit bad, but it's okay. Part of the game. It was good that we won. Interesting win. If I had the hat trick it would've been nice since I have never earned a hat trick," Chahal said in the post-match presentation ceremony.
"The plan was I will give a new batter a googly since there was bounce and turn. (on bowling in Royals and with Ashwin) I first try to see the situation. What the team needs. Whether I go for dots or wickets," Chahal added.
While Royals have now won two out of two, MI have lost both their games in another dismal start to an IPL season.
Firstly, it was Buttler's (11 fours and five sixes) assault against MI's weak-links like Basil Thampi and Murugan Ashwin that made the difference. Three such overs yielded 73 runs and even Bumrah's brilliance didn't seem to be enough in the final context of the match.
And then while bowling, in between overs 14 and 16, Chahal-Ashwin combination gave away only 16 runs and the chase was derailed.
In the last four overs also, Trent Boult (1 for 29 in four overs), Prasidh Krishna (1/37 in 4 overs) and Navdeep Saini (2/36 in 3 overs) kept things tight by not giving Kieron Pollard (22 off 24 overs) any room to free his arms.
