Buttler breaks England record with 46-ball century

Buttler’s half-century was a walk in the park off 30 balls, the first time he had reached 50 in his last 23 innings for England against white ball or red.

Nov 20 Jos Buttler broke his own England record for the fastest one-day worldwide century, reaching his hundred in 46 balls as the tourists amassed 355 for five wickets against Pakistan in Dubai on Friday.

Shoaib Malik top-scored for Pakistan with 52 in 34 balls before Alex Hales took a stunning diving catch at deep square leg off Reece Topley, while Azam contributed 51 in 51 balls. There may have been better innings played by an England player in ODI cricket, but it is not easy to think of them.

With six down for 228, Sarfraz Ahmed was the only remaining flicker of hope, but when he went to Adil Rashid, hope was all but extinguished, Rashid and Moeen Ali taking three wickets a-piece, with Rashid continuing his rise to prominence.

Root ably supported Roy, hitting three boundaries and two sixes during his run-a-ball innings before he was stumped off the bowling of Azhar who finished with 2-26. Hales might have missed out, but he took excellent catches to remove Azam and Malik.

With England on 54-1, Joe Root once more steadied the ship and together with his Surrey partner, the two put on a 140 partership, with Roy notching his first worldwide century en-route, whilst Root hitting 71 off 71 balls.

Buttler began his attack with a six off Azhar and followed it up with three fours off Irfan.

The visitors are leading the series 2-1 after winning the second ODI by 95 runs and third by six wickets following a six-wicket loss in the series-opener.

Pakistan briefly threatened to upset the party, but were bowled out for 271 to lose by 84 runs.

The 25-year-old lost the gloves to Jonny Bairstow after England’s 178-run defeat to Pakistan in the second Test in Dubai following a miserable run with the bat in which he averaged just 8.5 from four innings in the UAE.

It was an emotional as well as a breakthrough moment for Roy when he completed his century, with eight fours and that six from 113 balls. Indeed they gamely chased an unlikely success from the off and were up with the requisite run-rate early on in a thrilling passage of play.

“But we all realise the importance of this game so we will do our hardest work to win and I am confident that if we play to our ability then we can definitely win this game”.

“We’ve got a few players that haven’t been involved in this series that could get a run in the Twenty20 series”.

Buttler, who was named Man of the Series said his unbeaten 49 in Sharjah helped “get the monkey off my back and actually do something”. “To come back here and have a good day is really satisfying”, said Buttler at the post-match presentation.