It was utter carnage in Amstelveen as England set a new world record in ODI and List-A cricket, ransacking a total of 498/4 against the Netherlands. Three England batters – Jos Buttler (162 not out of 70 balls), Dawid Malan (125 off 109) and Phil Salt (122 off 93) – recorded centuries before Liam Livingstone smashed 66 runs off 22 balls.
Against the Dutch, the wicket-keeper was promoted to number 4 and whacked 7 fours and 14 sixes in his record-setting innings, he reached the three-figure mark in 47 balls, now the second-fastest by an Englishman, only one ball more than he did in 2015 vs Pakistan in Dubai and is now the holder of the three fastest centuries by an England men’s batsman – off 46 balls, 47 balls and 50 balls.
Jos Buttler credits the IPL form for his knock vs Netherlands
Jos Buttler carried on his rich vein of form from the IPL 2022, where he amassed 863 runs, slamming 4 hundreds and as many fifties to take Rajasthan Royals to the final.
The 31-year-old said that he had been feeling confident from his success at the IPL 2022 and was fresh and charged up for the international summer.
“The IPL couldn’t have gone better for me. I absolutely loved it, and that gives you a lot of confidence. Coming here I was feeling in good touch: I turned up with a lot of motivation and freshness which I think is really key,” Buttler said.
Buttler was promoted to number 4 after the 222-run partnership off 170 balls between Salt and Malan for the second wicket, with England wanting their best batter to utilize the remainder of the innings.
Speaking about the promotion in the batting order, Buttler stated: “Over the years, when we’ve got off to good starts, I’ve sometimes been pushed up to No. 4 and today we got off to a fantastic start with Salt and Malan. We’re pretty flexible as a group and if that’s what they want to do on the day. I enjoy that middle-order role in one-day cricket so I’m very happy with the role I’ve got.”
England captain Eoin Morgan also hailed Buttler as “probably the best white-ball cricketer in the world at the moment”.