IPL 2018 | Shane Warne insisted on Ben Stokes opening the innings along with me, reveals Jos Buttler

It was a night to remember for the fans at the Sawai Mansingh stadium in Rajasthan as the struggling Royals handed MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings a surprise defeat with English batsman Jos Buttler playing one of the best knocks of the tournament. But one of the most surprising moments of the match was when Buttler’s national teammate, Ben Stokes opened the innings along with him to chase down a target of 177 from 20 overs. Buttler later went on to reveal that it was Shane Warne’s decision to promote Stokes up the batting order ahead of the likes of Sanju Samson and Ajinkya Rahane. 

"Shane Warne sort of said why don't you go at the top and play with some freedom and try and see if that comes off because he felt like he was going to find it hard in the middle with his running. I kept nicking the strike off him at the top, but it was a nice experiment and I think Shane Warne has obviously been a proactive guy and thought why not, let's try it," Buttler said in a post-match review.

Although Stokes departed early after he was clean bowled off a Harbhajan Singh delivery, it was Buttler who was the star last night as he guided his team to a deserved victory over the high-flying CSK outfit. Buttler smashed 95* off just 60 deliveries to reach the target of 177 with one ball to spare.

"I'm 100% committed when he's at the end of his mark, really. I just felt like we needed a boundary, and actually, watching KL Rahul bat here the other day in the last over, against Jaydev, he played a few reverse sweeps and that made me think maybe that was a good option. It's a shot I'm quite confident with and I wasn't really finding the boundary elsewhere," Buttler added.

Buttler made the most of the powerplay overs as he got off to a brilliant star which ensured that RR were always in the driving seat during the match. Despite losing wickets at the other end at regular intervals, Buttler stayed put till the end to seal a much needed win for the home team.

"I had some interesting conversations at the time out. Initially, we were going well and it was just trying to keep that going. I talked about just trying not to lose my intent. You know, a few games, having come out of the Powerplay, I've felt like I've lost that boundary option so I was trying to that.

"And as we saw when we bowled, how it got harder and harder, the decision was whether we try to win the game earlier, and get it down to nearer a run a ball for the last three or four overs or trying to take it deep. And I think we were sort of a little bit taken [aback] by what bowlers they bowled at certain times and it dictated [our plans] a bit," he added.