Buttler flicks the switch to find form at the right time

One run to win. It was a chance for Jos Buttler to let loose and wallop a shot he likes to bring up a landmark he didn't play for but had a chance to get to.

As Buttler cleared his front leg and swung for the hills, he watched with bated breath as the ball curved away towards the longer boundary. As he just cleared the deep midwicket fence, he looked heavenwards, threw his arms wide and let out all his pent-up emotion. Buttler was back.

He had overcome a wretched IPL run that stretched back to the middle of last year; this included five ducks in 14 innings. In that time, he watched Yashasvi Jaiswal become a powerplay king, while having to shelve his own flair, not for the lack of ability, but because he understood he needed to re-align himself after an unexplained form slump.

It's a period batters are coaxed into believing the big innings is around the corner simply because they're hitting it beautifully in the nets. But the harder Buttler tried, the more he looked out of sorts. It was far different to IPL 2022, where he was Royals' MVP. His sumptuous returns: a chart-topping 863 runs at an average of 57.53 and a strike rate of 149.05, with four hundreds.

Buttler came into Saturday's fixture on the back of scores of 11, 11 and 13. He was seemingly in a self-inflicted bubble that didn't allow him to play shots he would otherwise to hittable deliveries. It seemed that way early in his innings against RCB too. Partly down to his own diffidence, and partly down to some excellent deliveries early on, like the very first delivery he faced off Reece Topley.

Butler offered no feet movement, and the lateral movement amplified his struggle in picking length as the ball beat the inside edge and whizzed over the stumps. You can only wonder what could've been. Maybe the discourse would've taken a different turn and pointed to his struggles, which have been very real in recent times, going back to the 2023 ODI World Cup where he cut a disconsolate figure as batter and captain, having averaged 15.33 all tournament.

Buttler needed some luck, and he'd got that first ball in Jaipur. Yet, it meant very little early on. An attempted scoop off Mohammed Siraj flew off a top edge for a fortuitous boundary. Then in trying to imperiously drive Siraj, he sliced one over point. Buttler was 10 off 10, and the first four overs had just gone for 25 in RCB's defence of 183.

Then in the sixth over, as spin came on, Buttler broke free. The long hops came and Buttler suddenly rediscovered the feeling of being able to dominate bowlers. A slap through cover, a pull over deep midwicket and a straight one into his swinging arc all suddenly freed up the cobwebs. The over went for 20 and the stranglehold RCB had vanished.

Buttler had flicked the switch, going from audacious to the sublime in a second. When he slapped Cameron Green through the covers, a more-than-acceptable slower ball on a length into the pitch, to try and cramp him up, you simply knew Buttler was somewhere near his dominating best. His making of room and generation of power in his punch was a thing of beauty.

"I think however long you've played the game, you still have the anxiety and stress," Buttler said afterwards. "The mind is a powerful thing. Sometimes it's not easy, you just got to tell yourself everything will be okay. You've played for a long time, try and sort of dig into the things you've done well, keep working hard. There's no secret to it. And you need a little bit of luck along the way, but just sort of having faith, at some point you'll be okay."

Buttler revealed the signs were there from earlier. In Mumbai four days ago, he lasted all of 16 deliveries, but had that feel when he dug out a yorker-length delivery from Kwena Maphaka to the cover boundary. There was more confidence when he nearly clipped Jasprit Bumrah to the midwicket boundary.

"I did feel really good in the last game even though I got 13," Buttler said. "I had a really good tournament [SA20] in South Africa at the start of the year, but coming to the IPL, I think, sort of relaying on from the finish of IPL last year where I struggled a bit, I needed one innings to put that to bed and I now look forward."

As Buttler did his thing with Sanju Samson, making the very shots Virat Kohli described as tough look ridiculous easily, while gliding the ball behind square, driving cutters imperiously on the up through covers and punching his way to a century, there was one man in the Royals dug out not least one bit surprised at the turn of events.

"Everyone requires a chat, but the chat doesn't necessarily have to be about cricket or technique," Director of cricket Kumar Sangakkara said. "Form is a state of mind. Jos is one of the best white-ball openers in world cricket and has been for so many years, he's very smart, knows how to figure things out. Sometimes you've to just let the noise die down and let him be as well. We have a nice balance of that with Jos."

Over the past few seasons, Royals have shown the propensity to drop off after a roaring first half. Which is perhaps why the timing of Buttler's return couldn't be better.