RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 2 sourcesHe did it with a six, of course.
Jos Buttler thrashed Marco Jansen's ball over square leg and on to the balcony of the hotel behind the stand at Old Trafford.
That shot helped the England white-ball great move to 14,833 runs in T20 cricket, surpassing Kieron Pollard's mark of 14,803 to become the highest run-scorer in the format's history.
The Manchester Super Giants number three went on to make 51 from 20 balls, another superb innings in a remarkable 522-match career in the sport's shortest format.
The 35-year-old is in a sparkling run of form in T20s, making 50+ scores in three of his last four Hundred matches - which count towards T20 stats - and hammering a 64-ball 131 in his most recent international outing, a victory over India at Southampton last month.
BBC Sport takes a look at the statistics that put the former England white-ball captain among the greats of the T20 game, and the reasons behind his remarkable longevity.
Surpassing modern-day heavyweights Gayle & Pollard
The race, whether stated or not, has been on since 2022.
That was when Chris Gayle, the charismatic West Indies opener who blazed a trail in the shortest format, played his last professional game, setting a mark of 14,562 runs in T20 cricket.
Buttler was always one of the leading candidates to take the record down.
However, it was another West Indian in T20 journeyman Pollard, 39, who beat him to it, passing Gayle's total in June and extending the record to 14,803 over the course of the Major League Cricket season.
Pollard had the advantage as the leading appearance maker in the format with 741 - 139 more than Sunil Narine in second place.
Buttler sits ninth on that list with 522 appearances and while he is England's highest T20 appearance maker with 160 caps, he doesn't hold the record for most appearances in the format by an Englishman.
That goes to Alex Hales, who has made 528 appearances and was another candidate to break the record - he has 14,429 runs to his name and sits fourth in the all-time list.
Buttler's total includes 1,192 runs scored in 31 matches in The Hundred, with cricket statisticians including data from the competition in T20 records.
How it all began
It all started in Hyderabad, curiously enough.
Playing in the short-lived Champions League Twenty20 in 2009, Somerset debutant Buttler, who had recently turned 19, emerged at number nine against New South Wales.
A single driven down the ground off Moises Henriques was the first of six runs that day, finishing unbeaten as his side closed on 111 and then lost the match within 12 overs.
When he made his England debut, almost two years later in Manchester, he wasn't called upon to bat as the home side beat India. Indeed, he didn't bat in three of his first four T20I appearances.
Buttler's first taste of life in international cricket was as a lower-order finisher, and his first runs for England in that India series were 13 from number seven.
He started slowly, with an unbeaten 32 against South Africa - his one score higher than 15 in his first 11 innings at international level.
However, former England team-mate Dawid Malan said Buttler's qualities were always evident.
"He started young [he was 20 when he made his England debut]. He always had the scoops and power and he's developed with the modern game," said Malan.
"He's never been left behind and he's almost been at the forefront of pushing the modern game and what players can do."
Buttler's first half-century for England came against New Zealand in 2013, though it took until the 2021 T20 World Cup for his first ton - against Sri Lanka in Sharjah, off 67 balls.
Hungry for runs - year after year
While Buttler has been remarkably consistent in the format - he has averaged fewer than 30 in just one of the past 12 calendar years (2017) - he has really kicked on since 2021, a period which has brought all nine of his T20 tons.
Having emerged as a late-order hitter, his run-scoring became even more prolific when he moved up the order to open the batting for his respective teams.
His record in the powerplay is superb, with an average of 43 in the first six overs of the innings and, of all the English batters to have more than 1,000 powerplay runs in the format, only two better Buttler's average, albeit having played considerably less cricket (Tom Westley and Kevin Pietersen).
And if he's still around during the death overs, Buttler is even more destructive - striking at 184 between overs 16 and 20 compared to 143 at the top of the innings.
It is all based around some very simple principles.
"Jos Buttler's whole philosophy is to hit the ball on the off side," said Malan.
"When you speak to him about batting he is very big on looking off side and, at the death in particular, he's always looking to hit the sightscreen flat. That is weird because generally players are trying to hit the ball high and out of the ground.
"But by doing that [looking to hit the sightscreen flat] he is pushing his left hip at the bowler. He has two things he believes in; hitting the sightscreen and doing that. He gets himself into positions where he's so strong with his base that he can find the ball with his hands."
Here is an example of Jos Buttler's stance in the final overs of an innings, when he is looking to hit the ball for six. As Dawid Malan says, Buttler likes to use his left hip to generate power to hit the ball down the ground [CricViz]
Ex-England paceman Steven Finn pointed to Buttler's wristy style of play as he added: "The first time I bowled at him in the nets, the ball just made a different sound of his bat.
"The way he turns his wrists and hockey slaps it when he hits a cover drive or when he hits a six down the ground, he's got such strong wrists which I think makes him a bit different to other batters who are more classica...
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