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. 

"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.

"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.