Jos Buttler's innings was standout in our loss against the Royals, concedes Stephen Fleming

It was a single-handed effort from the explosive wicket-keeper batsmen Jos Buttler, who carried his side to victory against CSK to survive yet another day in the tournament. Rajasthan, before the game, were in a do or die position, as their win against the men in yellow sees the points table wide open with three teams stranded on equal points in same no. of matches.

However, it was yet again a last over thriller as the men in yellow failed to defend another total, but the coach of the losing team feels it was a Buttler special that took it away from them.

Had plans, but he was class apart

Fleming concedes that it was Jos Buttler, who stole the show in a high-scoring thriller, that went down the wire. He reckons it as decent bowling performance that had more to do with some splendid batting on display. Chennai had their plans but the Englishmen proved to be too good for them on the given day as they failed to execute their plans.

“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. Buttler 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 his side lost by four wickets.

Coach looked optimistic and believed that the game was evenly poised after the power-play. In his opinion, they expected the pitch to get slower to allow the slower bowlers to come in the game and get more purchase from the surface. “But we realized 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.

Buttler settled to steal the game

It was a game that was fell fought as the home team emerged winners to keep their hopes alive for the play-offs spot. There was a bit surprise in the beginning when Stokes was send to open but the opposition was ready yo counter any such move. “We got (Ben) Stokes early but could not get Buttler who settled down nicely, got the momentum in the first six overs,” he said at the post-match press conference.

Talking in hindsight about the score, the former Kiwi skipper reckons it as a par score, “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 concluded.

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