Jos Buttler's day out

NICK FRIEND: Buttler's century might just be the most complete knock produced by an Englishman in T20 cricket. Certainly, Eoin Morgan saw it as "one of his best-ever innings in an England shirt"

When Jos Buttler reached a 45-ball half century, you might have got long odds on him converting that into his first T20 hundred for England.

It had been a painstaking, lone hand designed to drag his country from a rare position of semi-crisis, having watched Jason Roy, Dawid Malan and Jonny Bairstow come and go, all beaten ostensibly by the same trick, with Sharjah’s low, skiddy bounce giving Sri Lanka’s bowlers a clear target: bowl straight, hit the stumps.

At the other end, Eoin Morgan – his captain – was fighting against himself, as well as one of the better spin pairings on show in this competition: he eventually moved from nine off 20 balls to 40 off 36. But he was a footnote, just as Wanindu Hasaranga – on whom this piece was initially going to be focused – became a footnote.

Because Buttler is freakish, laser-eyed, clinical: the competition’s leading run-scorer and England’s greatest-ever white-ball batter, a once-disputed gong that is now surely beyond the realms of serious debate. Whoever’s behind him on that list has plenty of catching up to do. His slowest T20I fifty became a 67-ball century – he has five in ODIs faster than that, a statistic that is nothing but a nod to the malleability of his firepower in this absurd subgenre that features only the world’s best. He becomes the first man – Heather Knight was the first overall – to reach three figures in all formats for England.

Normally, the central broadcaster for this tournament would have grabbed a word with him at the interval, but he was spared and replaced by Paul Collingwood, England’s assistant coach and, in his day, not a bad white-ball cricketer himself. He could only laugh though, explaining how the message had been reported back to the changing room at one stage that 110 would represent a competitive total. “We were just trying to get something going,” Buttler added, smiling once the game was finally won.

From 47 for 3 at the halfway mark, it might well have been what other sides in this competition would have looked towards: for the last 48 hours, India and Australia have been under the microscope for their antiquated approaches to T20 batting. But England have prided themselves in this era on staying ahead of the curve and challenging what was previously considered normal. They amassed 116 runs in the second half of their innings for the loss only of Morgan, who was gutsy and played a significant hand in its own way. Buttler called it an “incredibly great knock” in taxing conditions. “When you’ve had a run of low scores, this is probably not a place you want to come and bat,” he added in praise of Morgan’s contribution.

^{Jos Buttler is the first man to make hundreds in all formats for England}

Having used up a sixth of England’s innings for negligible reward – and looked desperately short on form in the process – the captain was opening himself up to a whole heap of scrutiny, with Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone waiting in the wings. Others might have run out of patience and thrown away their wicket at least to give off the impression of going down in a blaze of glory. Morgan dug in though and took serious responsibility for a hole that for a while appeared to be deepening around him. “You always have to believe,” he said at the close. “If you don’t believe, nobody else will. I’m incredibly proud of everything that we’ve done tonight.”

For what it’s worth, Buttler was most pleased with his runout of Dasun Chanaka, throwing the stumps down to give England a second key wicket in a matter of minutes, just after an injury to Tymal Mills had torn up their plans. They were superb thereafter, faced for the first time in this tournament with a smidgeon of jeopardy, with the dew increasing to the point that a replacement towel was summoned. They were tremendous in the field, barring one dropped chance from Chris Woakes. “Fielding is an attitude, a selfless thing you do for the team,” said Buttler, and it showed.

England were never better, however, than when he was primed. There was a time when his exact role in this team was a fairly divisive issue, and those in charge toyed with the dilemma of either hiding him as a specialist finisher or unleashing him to do things like this. They chose the latter and have been summarily rewarded ever since: he averages 60.50 at the top, striking at 149.17 in the process. Neither number is unheard-of, but to achieve them in tandem is a truly outrageous thing. “Lots of fours, lots of sixes, don’t get out,” as goes the joke. Somehow, he has made it a reality.

The punishment handed to Australia’s attack on Saturday was devoured as a glorious victory over the old enemy. But everyone watching – and Buttler, certainly – knew that he was merely putting the finishing touches to a fine display from his bowlers. In hindsight, its greatest significance came in serving notice for what might be about to follow, alerting anyone who needed telling of where his game is currently at.

Make no mistake, though, this was the far better innings. It might just be the most complete knock produced by an Englishman in T20 cricket. Certainly, Morgan saw it as “one of his best-ever innings in an England shirt”. It is one thing doing it when the odds are stacked in your favour and the job is simply to put bat to ball. But it is another entirely to do all that while exhibiting such a clear understanding of a complex scenario.

^{Jonny Bairstow congratulates his teammate on an outrageous individual performance}

He made 101, his colleagues 56. Extras added six, but you get the gist. Armed with the burden that a World Cup brings, his precision was ice-cold, fully aware of when and from where his runs would come. It was an innings constructed in stages: first, seeing off Hasaranga, who he admitted afterwards he had struggled to pick; then, rebuilding alongside his captain; next, exploiting the overs of Lahiru Kumara and Dushmantha Chameera, the quickest bowlers on show; finally, attacking the death of the innings as he normally would. The result? He made 12 off 24 balls against spin, before capitalising on the fact that he was still there by smashing 89 off 43 against pace.

When put like that, perhaps it oversimplifies a remarkable talent: the ability to absorb pressure, commit to catching up, put plans into actions. Quite simply, it is one thing to decide to hit Kumara and Chameera – two men bowling in excess of 90mph – out of Sharjah.

It is another entirely to execute that theory to perfection.

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