Sometimes you just got to swallow your ego: Jos Buttler after his blistering innings

Jos Buttler, the dangerous Jos Buttler is back! After a brilliant start to the season, Buttler’s form dip but against Gujarat in a crucial match, he showed all his class and scored 89 off 56 deliveries. The England International has also scored 700+ runs in this season of Indian T20 League but like in every other match, no one really stepped up to help Rajasthan get the much needed win!

It wasn’t easy for Buttler at the very beginning. He struggled to strike the ball well and most importantly, wasn’t playing his natural game. After Yashasvi Jaiswal was dismissed early, Sanju Samson was taking the attack to the opposition while Jos the Boss was playing the role of an anchor. One can even say that Buttler was lucky at times as Gujarat failed to capitalise on half chances. Things changed quickly as the Buttler who scored 39 off first 38 balls, scored his last 50 runs in just 18 balls.

“I was finding it tough to start with”, said the opener. He added, “Then Sanju came in and was playing fantastically well from ball one, so tried to get him back on strike for a bit. He took a lot off me. It wasn't my most fluent innings, but I tried to hang in tough and stay in there, get a bit at the end and ride my luck”.

When asked how he turned everything upside down, the 31-year-old said, “What I tried to do is just hang in there. I know at some point I trust myself to get away. Today it came very late in the innings; sometimes you hope it comes early. But I was determined to hang in there. It was a big game for us and batting first I wanted to make sure we put a good score on the board. Sometimes you just got to swallow your ego; if you're finding it hard, you're finding it hard. Not to try and force it too much. Don't panic. I know the opposition will prefer me to panic and get out so I just try and hang in there, bide my time and pick a match-up when I get it”.

Despite his brilliant effort, Rajasthan bowlers couldn’t find an answer to stop Gujarat batters. Hardik Pandya and David Miller were bullying all the bowlers of Rajasthan. Not for once did the former champions look in the driver’s seat except in the last over when Gujarat needed 16 runs. It didn’t take a lot of time as Miller’s three sixes to Prasidh Krishna in the first three balls of the match changed everything.

The team depends a lot on purple cap holder Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin to get the job done. However, the duo conceded 78 runs off their 8 with Ashwin conceding 40 of his four. Backing the duo, Buttler said, “Those two guys have been outstanding for us all season. We continue to back them. This is a tough place for bowlers - seam or spin. If you're just a little bit off, it's a very small ground with a very fast outfield. There are lots of boundaries available on this particular ground. We knew it's always going to be a little bit tough and bowling second, there was a little bit of dew as well. It's one of the reasons we were desperate to finish in the top two; we're still alive in the tournament and still got a chance. We were disappointed today but we'll dust that off. We're still in the tournament”.