If many thought Jos Buttler's 71*-run knock against Australia in a chase of 126 was brutal innings, one of the best white-ball openers in the world gave a slow death to Sri Lanka in his side's fourth game of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021.

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England lost the toss and were put in to bat for the first time in this tournament and found themselves in an unfamiliar position losing three early wickets. Captain Eoin Morgan promoted himself to No 5 ahead of Moeen Ali and joined Buttler in the middle, who was playing at run-a-ball.

Both took their time initially but Buttler almost set up a blueprint for all the batters and the teams in how to bat first as he soaked up the pressure, kept rotating the strike, didn't play too many dot balls and didn't let any boundary opportunity go and then set himself up for the big last explosion to go on and smash his maiden T20I century in just 67 balls including six fours and as many sixes.

This was Buttler's second century in T20 cricket this year after having smashed a hundred in the first half of IPL 2021 for Rajasthan Royals against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Delhi. 

Buttler became the second Englishman to score a century in T20 World Cup after Alex Hales' 116* against Sri Lanka only in the 2014 edition in Bangladesh and eighth batter overall.

The 31-year old wicket-keeper batsman became only the first England player to score centuries in international cricket in all three formats. Buttler with nine centuries in ODIs and two in Test matches achieved the feat on Monday and became the 16th player overall after the likes of David Warner, Suresh Raina, Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum, Tamim Iqbal, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Shane Watson, Glenn Maxwell, Ahmed Shehzad, Mahela Jayawardene, Kevin O'Brien, Martin Guptill, Faf du Plessis and Tillakaratne Dilshan.

In T20Is, Buttler has staggering numbers as an opener. In 26 innings, he has smashed 1089 runs at an average of 60.50, striking at 149.17, including 11 fifties and one century. Buttler with that knock, now is also the highest run-getter in the ongoing T20 World Cup scoring 214 runs in just four innings.

England now have four wins in the ongoing T20 World Cup and have put one foot in the semi-finals.