Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Shane Bond, the bowling coach of Rajasthan Royals, revealed that opener Jos Buttler had been sick for two days ahead of Saturday’s game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru and felt him scoring an unbeaten 58-ball century was an incredible effort.At the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Buttler weathered the early storm and then brought out the attacking play to perfection in returning to form by exactly 100 runs off 58 balls, laced with nine fours and four sixes, in what was his sixth IPL century.
Through his brilliant knock which gave RR a six-wicket win over RCB to maintain their hundred per cent win record, Buttler has also become only the second batter to score a 100 in his 100th IPL match, after KL Rahul.
“Obviously delighted for Jos Buttler. We have been winning games without opening partnerships so far, but he and Yash (Yashasvi Jaiswal have been striking the ball very well in the nets. So it was just about the matter of time if one of them starts firing.”
“Buttler had been sick for the last two days and to come out straight from the bed and score a century is an incredible effort. So, nice to see him back to his best and all the boys were delighted for him,” said Bond in the post-match press conference.
Last year, RR just won one of its five home games at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium. But this year, they have managed to get three out of three wins so far, with them expected to maintain their clean home slate against Gujarat Titans on April 10.
“If you look at our team, we have got a really strong team; we don’t have the all-rounders as such. We bat pretty deep with five genuine bowlers and are playing really well. One of the things which we talked about was playing better at home, as last year we didn’t do well here.”
“We did talk about how we wanted to play here and worked about it, but we think we have adjusted very well and with three out of three wins at home, which gives us a lot of confidence going into the next game, which is also here,” added Bond.
With the ball, Trent Boult and Nandre Burger weren’t much effective, but the experienced spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal kept things tight in middle overs, including the latter taking two wickets.
“It was not the best start for us, plus they (Boult and Burger) weren’t at their best. But we are lucky to have five outstanding bowlers. When we restricted them to mid-180, felt we were in the game. Got to be happy when the team is winning four games in a row.”
“The games that we have played here haven’t turned a lot. Credit to the way (Ravichandran) Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal did not give away too many runs. But there isn’t a lot on offer for spinners on this wicket,” stated Bond.
He signed off by suggesting RCB committed an error in their bowling make-up via the impact player rule. “We thought they would bring in a seamer as an impact sub, but got their spinner in and probably misread the conditions, which cost them in terms of the game. At the end of the day, runs were scored and it had something for bowlers if you changed the pace at the right areas or used the right bounce.”
