Cricket: 'Sometimes, you got to swallow your ego' - Buttler on his scratchy start

[banglabhai420]

Jos Buttler entered the 700-run club this season with a 56-ball 89 against Gujarat Titans in the Qualifier 1. It wasn't a knock typical of Buttler though, who had struggled to get going early on in the game with the wicket gripping a tad and batting not being the easiest for a batter who has had starkly contrasting halves in IPL 2022. He had his fair chances with GT's fielders failing to take the half-chances and he hung in there, bided his time and then teed off. After scoring 39 off 38 balls, he scored his last 50 runs in just 18 balls.

"I was finding it tough to start with," conceded Buttler. "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.

"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."

His knock took RR to 188 but it wasn't enough on the night as David Miller and Hardik Pandya shared a 106-run stand for the fourth wicket off 61 balls to take GT to the final in their maiden IPL. Also contributing to that was the fact that RR's strength - their spin twins - as seen throughout the season went wicketless on the night, with Ashwin conceding as many as 40 runs, the most he has in an innings this season.

"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's 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."

[Silent Watcher]

Avoid unnecessary posts such as 'Thank you', 'Welcome', etc. Such posts will be deleted and user will be warned if it happens again. If caught spamming, the following actions are applicable -

• First time - Warning
• Second time - 5000 Points will be deducted
• Third time - Ban for 7 days
• Fourth time - Permanent Ban

If the post helped you, reward the user by reacting to the post like this -