Mistakes happen when confidence becomes overconfidence. Two consecutive centuries could have given more vision and extraordinary belief of his instinct for Buttler. Any batter at this particular stage would go needlessly to start the next innings; it is natural. But the prolific Jos Buttler being super professional, started his innings from scratch.
From the beginning, Jos Buttler showed intent to build a strong foundation. With his left arm angle, Khaleel Ahamed was perplexing Buttler at the start of the innings. Buttler had no clue, waiting for the in-swinger but got bemused whenever he faced the away swinger. Luckily for Buttler, the away swingers licked the edge of his blade through to the third-man region and fetched him two boundaries.
Even though Buttler didn’t score a run in the second over, that particular Shardul Thakur’s over was used well by Buttler to get set to the rhythm of the pace and bounce of the pitch.
Delhi Capitals’ decision to bring in Lalit Yadav in the powerplay overs favored Buttler, and he took those overs to take time in the middle. It wasn’t hard for Buttler to face an off-spinner when he got ready for the pitch. He knew that he could still fire up when it counted.
Watch: Jos Buttler’s third ton of IPL 2022
The entire scenario got turned around when the English batter decided to take charge on the last over of the powerplay. Unfortunately, Khaleel missed his length and went straight into the slot of Buttler, which made Buttler make his typical shot of bringing away his front leg and slogging hard. The two huge sixes that came out of that over brought Buttler back on track in his last two games.
Even though Buttler got charged up, he wasn’t feeling comfortable facing Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav. On seeing Buttler’s initial uncomfortability of spin bowling, Kuldeep tossed up, which was then sent downtown with a bang. That was the last hurdle Buttler had to face on that night. After that, things got much easier for the English keeper.
The Rajasthani opener started picking the length better and what’s more interesting is he gets a slot ball once in every four balls he faces.
Again the offie Lalit Yadav came in to serve his one among the four overs, making Buttler make a paradigm shift. Two sixes and a boundary from Lalit’s over automatically set in momentum to take on Axar and Kuldeep in the next two overs, respectively. Rishabh Pant was helpless with bowlers who didn’t know where to bowl for the super talented and charged-up Jos. Eventually, the accumulated runs of the three spin overs took Buttler to the precious 99-run mark.
The entire crowd in the stadium was standing up to capture the moment that deserved to be remembered for a long time. And finally, Buttler had to dab the ball to the long-on region to get his third ton of this IPL season and his fourth overall, making him only the fifth IPL batsman to reach the mark.
It was a well-constructed century for Buttler. Since he was all time ready to do a hefty swing of the bat, the stump line region became his slot. The confidence and super sight he got from the last two centuries made him a staunch host of the slot.
At the same time, he wasn’t quick and sharp to play the balls that were bowled outside off. But what surprises the most is why DC didn’t try to bowl outside off to Buttler. He was mistiming and mishitting those balls outside off, but still, there was no plan to stop him by that line.