KKR vs RR Highlights, IPL 2024: 3 moments that generated buzz among fans in Match 31 ft. Jos Buttler
The IPL 2024 encounter between the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and the Rajasthan Royals (RR) lived up to the hype of a top-of-the-table clash as the visitors beat Kolkata at the Eden Gardens in a last-gasp thriller on Tuesday, April 16.
Sunil Narine became just the third KKR player in IPL history to score a hundred, helping the hosts propel to 223/6 in their 20 overs. In reply, the Royals kept losing wickets in crucial junctures and needed something special to come even close to the target.
However, Jos Buttler stepped up and smashed his second hundred of the season, showing why he is arguably among the best T20 batters in the world. He helped the Royals snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
On that note, let's take a look at the three moments from the game that grabbed the attention of fans on social media:
#3 Avesh Khan's stunning catch and banter with Sanju Samson
The Rajasthan Royals have had some hilarious moments in the field over the past couple of seasons when multiple players have tried to catch the high ball despite skipper Sanju Samson being the man with the gloves.
In the presentation ceremony after RR's win over PBKS, Samson cheekily took a dig at Avesh Khan, saying that since he had the gloves, his fast bowlers should trust him to take the catch.
However, when Avesh took a sensational one-handed return catch to send back Phil Salt on Wednesday, he was seen having a fun banter with Samson. The RR captain offered him a wicketkeeping glove and Avesh then took it and hilariously gestured to the dressing room about how the ball stuck in his hands.
#2 Sunil Narine's IPL hundred
Sunil Narine's redemption arc as a batter has been nothing short of sensational ever since Gautam Gambhir made his return to KKR as a mentor. Not many would have imagined that after Brendon McCullum and Venkatesh Iyer, it would be Narine who would get the next IPL hundred from the franchise.
Narine didn't spare any RR bowlers and even the experienced Yuzvendra Chahal was taken to the cleaners. The southpaw smashed Chahal through mid-wicket for a boundary to bring up his hundred.
He would have won the Player of the Match had another ridiculously good hundred from RR's Buttler not taken the game away from the hosts.
#1 Jos Buttler with an all-time great IPL hundred
At one point in the chase, Jos Buttler was struggling with 42 off 34 balls and was running out of partners at the other end. He did get a bit of help from Rovman Powell in their handy partnership of 57 runs. But once the West Indian power hitter was dismissed, Buttler knew that he had to score all the remaining runs.
Remarkably, the star opener managed to face all of the final 18 balls and scored the required 46 runs single-handedly to take RR past the finishing lines. The scenes after the end of the game with the player congratulating Buttler and some even bowing down to him showed the magnitude of what the RR opener had achieved.