England women’s captain Heather Knight welcomed Jos Buttler to the all format hundred club in international cricket after the wicket-keeper batsman smashed an outstanding century against Sri Lanka in the T20 World Cup.
Butler hit 101 not out off 67 deliveries as England won by 26 runs and continued their unbeaten run in the competition.
The 31-year-old is renowned as a limited-overs specialist, though he is also the current stand-in vice-captain of the England test team. Nonetheless, despite scoring a century in the IPL before, Buttler had never registered an international T20 hundred until this game.
His outstanding knock now means he has registered tons in all three formats for his country – a feat only ever achieved by one other England player in Knight.
The England skipper scored her only Test hundred against Australia in 2013 and has two ODI plus one T20 century.
Knight took to Twitter to congratulate Buttler and stressed the enormity of the achievement, especially given how difficult the pitch was to bat on in Sharjah.
“Seriously unbelievable @josbuttler,” she wrote. “Tough pitch, targeted his bowlers and went hot at the end. Welcome to the hundred in all formats club.”
As Knight stressed, perhaps the most impressive thing about Buttler’s innings was his ability to switch gears with consummate ease. He targeted early runs in the powerplay, rotated the strike when the spinners were on in the middle overs and then smashed everything in sight at the end of the innings.
England’s win puts them top of Group One in the Super 12 with four wins from four. They are almost assured of a spot in the semi-finals even if Australia and South Africa win both of their remaining games and will top the group if they beat South Africa on Saturday.
The England men’s side are aiming to replicate the women’s side in becoming holders of both the ODI and T20 World Cup.
Eoin Morgan’s team famously beat New Zealand in a Super Over at Lords back in 2019 to win the 50 over competition and are undeniably favourites to go all the way this time around as well.
Interestingly, England women also beat New Zealand in both the ODI and T20 World Cup finals in 2009.
The Black Caps are third in Group Two at the moment in the men’s world T20 and look well set to qualify for the semi-finals.
If history is to repeat itself then it would be no surprise to see England and New Zealand face off in the final again this year.