IPL 2024: Why Jos Buttler is so strong while chasing? How his two hundreds in chase make him a gritty customer? Jos Buttler has 7 IPL hundreds just one away from Virat Kohli’s record.
Jos Buttler has become one of the most prominent white-ball batters in the last decade, largely thanks to his exploits in the shortest format. He is among the selected players who can change the course of a game in a matter of a few deliveries.
The same thing happened when he turned up for the Rajasthan Royals (RR) in an IPL game against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Buttler, with his breathtaking stroke play, tilted the game in the Royals’ favour from a point where it all seemed lost for the team during a tall run-chase. The game in discussion took place at the iconic Eden Gardens where batters generally get help from the surface. RR had to chase 224 (the second highest in IPL history).
But the response was far from ideal as despite reaching the 100-run mark in the ninth over, RR lost four of their batting mainstays. Jos Buttler, who got a decent start, saw the rest of his partners perishing while attempting to increase the scoring rate. Things got tough as the Royals were reduced to 125/6 at the 13-over mark with only Rovman Powell to accompany Buttler as a recognised batting partner.
They shared a 53-run stand in about 27 balls before Powell left and RR had a mountain to climb with a further 46 needed off the last three overs. Buttler was a single-man army and amazingly, he was able to farm strike for all of those balls, knocking off 39 runs in the process. He managed to do this against the likes of Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, and Varun Chakravarthy.
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Jos Buttler is a special player in his own right
This was his second consecutive century in a successful run-chase with the previous one coming against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at Jaipur. That knock of an unbeaten 100 from 58 deliveries signalled his coming back to form and was his sixth ton in IPL.
But the chase at Kolkata showed the kind of batter Jos Buttler, revealing a lot about his character. The game was all but gone for the Royals at more points in their chase than one, but Buttler held his end, showing remarkable temperament & character. He used all this experience in reading the situation of the game. He used brute power-hitting skills to snatch this win from the jaws of defeat. And the fact that these knocks, these T20 centuries, came in successful run-chases should be highly satisfying for a batter like Buttler.
This is because the England white-ball skipper was not having the best of times with the bat coming into this tourney. In the SA20 2024 tournament, Buttler made 404 runs in 11 innings at 40.80 for his side Paarl Royals and most of his knocks were scratchy at best. He had a pretty bad time both as a skipper and batter in the ICC World Cup 2023 for England where he could muster only 138 runs in 9 outings.
His returns were largely ordinary in the lead-up to the IPL and his three scores before the century against RCB read 11,11 & 13. So, he had a point to prove not for the franchise but for himself. Now, we are seeing the Buttler that we witnessed during the 2022 season where he hammered 893 runs striking at 149.05 with 4 centuries.
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Great signs for England cricket
Buttler getting back into form is not just fantastic news for Rajasthan but will also please the England team management as they head into the T20 World Cup. The event set to be hosted in the Caribbean and the United States will see conditions similar to what they get in India. Playing surfaces are expected to be slow but the batters will get a fair share of value for their shots.
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