Jos Buttler began slowly as Rajasthan Royals (RR) aimed to score at more than 11 runs per over, making only 25 runs off his first 18 balls. He was at the crease during what seemed like a debilitating mid-innings slowdown, in which Royals scored only 30 runs from six overs and lost three wickets in that time.
Despite clearly still struggling with the injury that kept him out of the last RR game and rapidly running out of batting partners, Buttler persevered. In the 18th over, after Rovman Powell was dismissed following a decent cameo, he declined singles and hit two sixes and a four in the penultimate over, reducing the required runs to nine off the final six balls.
Despite Varun Chakravarthy bowling three dots in the final over, Buttler heroically hit the winning run off the last ball of the match. He also bashed a six down the ground off the first ball of the over, making RR the clear favourites to win. This was his second century this IPL, following the 100 not out he struck against Royal Challengers Bengaluru only ten days ago.
Buttler's achievement overshadowed Sunil Narine's century, despite it being a remarkable accomplishment. This was also the case for Narine's figures of 2 for 30 off four overs.