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Ajinkya Rahane reckoned that Jos Buttler was the difference between the two sides and his team could've been on the wrong side of the result but for the hand played by the England batsman. On his way to a match-winning 89 off 43 balls, Buttler had clobbered 28 runs off the 13th over of the innings, from Alzarri Joseph, leaving Royals to get just 41 off 40 balls when he got out in the 14th. 
In an inexplicable slide that's getting all too familiar in this IPL, Royals managed to lose four wickets and scraped together just 28 runs in the next five overs. Royals were lucky to limp their way to the win after that thanks to a fortuitous 13 from Shreyas Gopal. In the end, Buttler's innings proved invaluable in securing his side a much-needed win over Mumbai Indians.
ESPNcricinfo's Smart Stats put Buttler's contribution with the bat to Royals' win at 49%. Buttler's 43-ball 89 was worth 20 more runs in the context of the match. The next-best contribution of Royals came from Shreyas. With the Mumbai openers set to accelerate after the Powerplay, the legspinner had stemmed the flow of runs giving away just six runs in his spell. Shreyas' 13 off seven in the chase were also valued more given the tight situation, to rate his contribution at 18.5% towards Royals' win. Jofra Archer may have been a tad expensive, going for 39 runs from four overs, but each of the three wickets he took were of important batsmen. Smart Stats takes into account the quality of the batsmen dismissed and the situation in which they were dismissed to award the bowler with additional or lower wicket value. All three of Archer's victims - Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard and Quinton de Kock - were rated high according to Smart Stats' batsmen rating. On top of that, had they batted on they could've helped Mumbai set a bigger target for Royals. Therefore, Archer's three wickets in the match were valued by Smart Stats at 3.5, which took his contribution to 15.3% - the third-best for Royals. Smart Stats is a part of Superstats, a new set of metrics by ESPNcricinfo to tell more enriching and insightful numbers-based stories. To know more about Superstats, click here. Click here to check out the Smart Stats numbers from IPL 2018.
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