His uncluttered mind is the recipe behind his success in the shortest format as Jos Buttler on Sunday carried from where he left last season with a whirlwind half-century to hand Rajasthan Royals a rousing start to a new IPL season.
The T20 World Cup-winning English white ball skipper, who was the leading run-getter in IPL last season, smashed a 22-ball 54 to set the tone for a massive 203 for 5.
“Really enjoying my batting at the moment and trying to keep a clear mind,” said Buttler after receiving the player-of-the-match after their huge 72-run win here.
The Royals opener had scored 863 runs with four centuries and as many fifties and averaged of 57-plus to win the Orange Cap in 2022 as they made their first final in 14 years.
“Keeping a clear mind and once you get a good start in the powerplay, it allows you to be aggressive.”
Buttler’s firework meant that Royals had a record start, scoring their highest-ever Powerplay score of 85 for 1.
“It is a fantastic start for us. We had a really good season last season, but it counts for nothing this year.”
Asked if he goes to bat with some pre-conceived ideas, he said: “A little bit. You try to plan a bit, but you try to assess the conditions, put the opposition under pressure.”
Later Yuzvendra Chahal (4-0-17-4) and Trent Boult (4-1-21-2) reduced SRH to 95 for 8 and restricted them to 131 for 8 in a lop-sided contest.
“The way we got the start in the batting, the way Jos and Yashasvi batted, we knew 200 was a good score on this wicket,” Chahal said.
On his match-up with Harry Brook, the Indian leg-spinner said: “My plan was to vary my pace and bowl stump to stump. It is always my strength. I am doing nothing new and I am just backing my strengths.”
Leading in the absence of their regular skipper Aiden Markram, SRH stand-in captain Bhuvneshwar Kumar said they have to move on from the loss.
The South African trio of Markram, Heinrich Klaasen and Marco Jansen are on national duty.
“Let’s forget and move on…South Africans are coming back and we definitely will be a much better batting side, we have to move forward from this game,” Bhuvneshwar said.
He said their bowling needs to improve and picked up positives from the cameo of Abdul Samad and Umran Malik, who conceded 36 runs from 14 balls.
“We did not bowl pretty well, first match of the season and a lot to improvement. It was a pretty good track, we can prepare what we want, but we are not worried about that.
“But the way we pulled back in the last six overs and Umran’s cameo at the end were some of the positives.”