Sports
Buttler’s sixth ton trumps Kohli’s eighth as Royals go four-from-four
Virat Kohli’s eighth IPL century went in vain as Rajasthan Royals secured a comfortable six-wicket win to go four-from-four at the start of IPL 2024. It was the third time that Kohli’s IPL century came in a losing cause as Jos Buttler’s unbeaten sixth IPL ton – achieved off the last ball of the chase – and Sanju Samson breezy half-century helped Royals over the line with five balls to spare at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Saturday.
There have been better and more fluent centuries Kohli has scored in the IPL. His innings was littered with shots that he couldn’t time as well as he would’ve liked partly down to the slightly tacky nature of the pitch in the first half of the match. There was ample intent to attack, but not every shot proved as effective as he would’ve liked. It took him 67 balls to reach the three-figure mark, the joint-slowest by anyone in IPL history.
He got going smoothly early on though, dictating terms in the powerplay. The acceleration began in the second over when he hit Nandre Burger over the mid on region for a boundary and then flicked another four through square leg. The region between deep square leg and deep mid wicket proved to be his most productive area from where he picked up nearly three-fourth of his runs. He even pulled Burger for a six in the pacer’s next over and provided RCB a strong start.
However, while he got off to a strong start and maintained their scoring rate, Kohli mentioned after his innings that it was decided that the pitch wasn’t as flat as it seemed from the outside and that they were forced to recalibrate the attempted total from 190 to 180 with one of the set openers batting till the end. Royals were also clever with their tactics. The pacers took the pace off consistently and bowled the short of good length, while the spinners also varied their pace and forced the batters to hit towards the longer boundary.
Every now and then, Kohli did manage to hit a few boundaries. He was particularly good against Avesh Khan in the death overs, slicing his yorker square of the wicket, flicking him through mid wicket, hitting straight down the ground and even through the cover region – all for boundaries. However, he didn’t get similar success against Burger in the end overs and the refusal to pick the extra runs while nearing his century ensured that RCB were restricted to 183 for 3 eventhough Kohli registered his joint-highest T20 score.
Faf du Plessis had got the innings going with a thumping drive over covers for four in the first over, and powered RCB to a fruitful opening partnership. Not only was it the first time this season that RCB had played out the powerplay without losing a wicket but they also blunted Royals’ attack, which had picked nine scalps in this period in their first three games.
In the company of Kohli, du Plessis added 125 runs for the opening wicket – the 47th century stand for the franchise and the second highest against Royals. While the RCB skipper was largely away from strike for most parts of the innings, he ensured the duo added more runs on the day and continued to score at rate of almost nine per over to set up a strong base for the rest of the batters to go on the offensive at the latter stage of the innings.
Interestingly, several of Royals’ better fielders made some mistakes. While Dhruv Jurel and Riyan Parag misfielded balls at the boundary, Trent Boult put down a sitter. However, the dropped catch didn’t prove too costly as du Plessis fell off the next ball, hitting flat to Jos Buttler at long on, despite it being a more than 70-meter shot. They even missed a few run out chances.
However, following the dismissal of du Plessis after scoring a 33-ball 44, Royals were quick to pounce on that opening, and ensured that the new batters didn’t have it any easier. After serving a couple of slower balls to Glenn Maxwell, Burger cleaned him up with a faster one. Saurav Chauhan’s debut wasn’t too noteworthy either as he was dismissed for a six-ball nine, offering a catch to Yashasvi Jaiswal at mid wicket, where he took it off a second attempt. Cameron Green’s attempt to muscle some big shots didn’t yield the desired result, as he could add only five runs in six deliveries.
Early on, there were signs that RCB could trouble RR on a pitch that Kohli had claimed wasn’t as flat as it looked. Reece Topley had Yashasvi Jaiswal top-edging a pull to mid off off the second delivery of the chase. Soon, Buttler could’ve been caught and then run out. But RCB let both chances slip away. The Royals opener, who had been enduring a bit of a patchy form lately was looking scratchy early on in the chase. In the first four overs RR managed to score only 25 runs.
Buttler and Samson dictated the run chase. The signs of a counterattack had started in the fifth over, but it was in the last over of the powerplay that they truly went into overdrive, with Buttler smoking Mayank Dagar for three boundaries and a six. The slip-ups from the RCB fielders were plenty. To add to it, even Kohli put down an opportunity to dismiss Samson on 28 when he dived forward but couldn’t hold on to a catch.
Samson, who was also slow to start off, went to the fifth gear in Dagar’s second over when he smashed the left-arm spinner for a six and two boundaries, and brought up his half-century in the process.
As the partnership flourished, RCB kept running out of ideas. While the two batters were quick to use deft touches to their advantage, they largely targetted the straight boundaries. In 86 balls, they put on a 148-run stand which almost sealed the fate of the contest. Samson fell in the 15th over pulling Siraj to the fine leg fielder, who took the catch barely a few inches from the boundary.
Needing 32 runs off the last five overs, the hosts didn’t need to sweat too much. Parag was dismissed chipping to the short mid wicket fielder and Jurel edged a delivery down the legside to the ‘keeper, but RCB were left with too much to threaten the contest. Nonetheless, they managed to take it to the last over, which seemed highly unlikely at the end of the 14th over, where they were left defending only 38 runs with nine wickets in hand.
With one run needed off the last over, Buttler smoked Green for a six over the deep mid wicket boundary to bring up his sixth IPL century and help RR over the line.
Brief Scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 183/3 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli 119*, Faf du Plessis 44; Yuzvendra Chahal 2-32, Nandre Burger 1-33) lost to Rajasthan Royals 189/6 in 19.1 overs (Jos Buttler 100*, Sanju Samson 69; Reece Topley 2-27, Mohammed Siraj 1-35) by 6 wickets
Ireland Women 118/9 in 20 overs (Alana Dalzelle 14, Orla Prendergast 26, Leah Paul 10, Alice Tector 10, Louise Little 26*; Lauren Bell 1-39, Linsey Smith 1-20, Sophie Ecclestone 3-22, Charlie Dean 2-11, Dani Gibson 2-10) lost to England Women 119/6 in 17.3 overs (Dani Wyatt Hodge 16, Nat Sciver-Brunt 48, Heather Knight 26; Aimee Maguire 2-23, Orla Prendergast 2-17) by 4 wickets
Lionel Messi marked his record sixth World Cup appearance with his first hat-trick at a FIFA tournament as Argentina beat Algeria 3-0 to open the defence of their global crown, he also became the joint highest scorer at World Cups with the feat.
The former 38-year-old forward thought he had opened the scoring in the eighth minute in Kansas City on Tuesday when he slotted home from close range, but the offside flag was raised.
The dream start to his record-setting appearance, which will be matched by Cristiano Ronaldo for Portugal against DR Congo on Wednesday, was not to be denied for long though.
A trademark, mazy run was capped by a drive on the edge of the box from that famed left foot. The power too much for Algeria keeper Luca Zidane, son of World Cup winner with France, Zinidine.
Messi doubled his tally on the hour mark with a simple tap in from a rebound off the keeper following a drive from Alexis Mac Allister.
The moment that even a player as decorated as Messi came in the 76th minute when he drilled low past the keeper from just outside the box.
The strike took Messi level with former Germany striker Miroslav Klose on 16 World Cup goals.
His substitution came just three minutes later to a standard ovation, even old maestro seemed disappointed to be removed – and most likely rested for Argentina’s tilt at becoming only the third side to defend a World Cup title.
Algeria – the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations winners – offered little, but were themselves denied an early goal when Fares Chaibi’s ninth minute strike was ruled out for offside.
Messi saw to it that there was no opening game upset to be had tat this edition, having lost their opening game at Qatar 2022 to Saudi Arabia.
Messi, who spent the majority of his club career in Spain with Barcelona before moving to French giants Paris-Saint Germain, plys his trade in US football’s Major League Soccer with Inter Miami.
Jordan and Austria open their account in the group later on Tuesday in San Francisco.
[Aljazeera]
Iran twice came from behind to draw 2-2 with New Zealand in an exciting World Cup clash at Los Angeles Stadium as protests against Tehran’s government and a peace deal signed to end the US-Iran war formed a charged backdrop to the match.
High security presence and protests outside the venue were among the off-field concerns surrounding the match on Monday.
And when New Zealand took an early lead through Elijah Just’s volleyed shot from inside the box, after being set up by Chris Wood, some fans critical of the Iranian government celebrated with New Zealand supporters.
Many of these anti-regime spectators also carried Iran’s pre-Islamic Revolution Lion and Sun flag, against FIFA’s rules. Several also booed Iran’s national anthem before kickoff.
But most of the crowd of more than 70,000 appeared firmly behind Team Melli, chanting “Ir-ran! Ir-ran!” and erupting when Ramin Rezaeian equalised shortly after the half-hour mark.
Rezaeian, one of several Iran players who had not played club football since February after the domestic league was suspended amid US and Israeli air strikes, reacted quickest to a blocked shot and poked the ball past the advancing goalkeeper.
Wood and Just combined again early in the second half, the New Zealand captain sliding a precise pass into the 26-year-old forward’s path before Just hammered home to restore the All Whites’ lead.
Iran responded 10 minutes later with a superb goal from Mohammad Mohebbi, who headed Rezaeian’s perfect cross in off the far post to make it 2-2.
The stalemate means all the teams in Group G have one point after Belgium drew 1-1 with Egypt earlier on Monday.
New Zealand, making their third appearance at the tournament, remain without a win at a World Cup after seven matches. Iran are looking to reach the knockout round for the first time.
The match laid bare divisions among Iranian American fans, many of whom said they felt torn between pride at seeing Iran on the sport’s biggest stage, anger over Tehran’s crackdown on protesters and concern over Washington’s bombing campaign.
Before kickoff, about 300 to 500 protesters gathered outside the stadium, waving anti-government signs and flags.
Some Iranian Americans had said attending the match would imply support for Iran’s government, while others said they wanted to set politics aside and support the players.
Iran will next return to Los Angeles to face Belgium on Sunday when New Zealand take on Egypt in Vancouver.
[Aljazeera]
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