Jaipur: Losing team Chennai Super Kings (CSK) head coach Stephen Fleming has praised Rajasthan Royals (RR) opener Jos Buttler for his match-winning unbeaten knock, saying the English batsman was a class apart Friday during their IPL-XI encounter here.
Buttler’s (95 n o, 60b, 11×4, 2×6) superb knock guided RR to a thrilling four wicket win over CSK. “We had a lot of plan for him (Buttler), left arm spin was one of them we were looking at but they did not work. Butler was a class apart on a difficult track. He batted through the innings. Had we got him earlier the result could have been different,” Fleming said after the match.
Fleming said the team plan was to get Buttler and Ben Stokes out early but only one part was successful. “We got (Ben) Stokes early but could not get Buttler who settled down nicely, got the momentum in the first six overs. It was a great game of cricket which went down the wire. We could have done better but we were simply not good enough to capitalise on the chances we had,” he said.
“The game was pretty even after the powerplay when we got two wickets. We were hoping that the pitch will get slower and then our slow bowlers would get some purchase. But we realised that back of the length the medium pacers were getting more success. We became playing for condition of the pitch rather than the plans for Buttler,” said the New Zealander.
Asked about the performance of his bowlers, Fleming said, “Yes, it could have been better, they could have been more accurate. But it was under pressure because of the way Buttler played. “It was a difficult wicket and we were happy with the total we had and I feel it was par. It was Buttler batting through the innings and get the momentum that decided the match,” he added.
Brief scores: CSK 176/4 (Suresh Raina 52; Jofra Archer 2/42) lost to RR 177/6 (Jos Buttler 95 n o; Shardul Thakur 1/22) by four wickets.
