The inaugural edition winners found themselves in a headlock right from the beginning of the run-chase after losing opener Yashaswi Jaiswal and skipper Sanju Samson cheaply in the powerplay. Riyan Parag looked to break the shackles but could only manage to score 34 off 14 balls as he was dismissed in the eighth over. The situation worsened for RR as they lost Ravichandran Ashwin and Shimron Hetmyer in the 13th over where the latter went for a duck.

Amidst the crumbling RR line-up, a resilient Jos Buttler kept himself going from the other end despite being injured. At 128/6, the Englishman had it all on his shoulders to chase down 96 runs with only 36 balls to spare, something which was never done before in the IPL.

Buttler traversed the length and breadth of the dramatic run chase as he narrowed the deficit to just nine runs required off six balls. At the last ball, with a run still required, Buttler got the much-important single and celebrated with a roar. His remarkable knock included 9 fours and 6 sixes.

The right-hander, during the post-match presentation, talked about how he had taken a leaf out of Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni’s book by staying in the middle till the end regardless of the result. “We have seen Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni staying till the end and finishing the matches. I just applied the same tonight,” he said.

Another tweet by the Royals quoted Buttler’s statement as they compared their formidable performance with India’s epic run chase against Pakistan at the T20 World Cup in 2022 where Virat Kohli’s robust knock propelled India to victory. The tweet mentioned how the Indian team required 48 runs in the last three overs similar to RR’s 46 runs on Wednesday.

Kohli smashed Haris Rauf for a couple of sixes in the penultimate over of the match when Idnia needed 28 to off 8 balls. Kohli hit another six in the last over before R Ashwin hit the winning runs.