The other day the prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, sauntered into the press box of Kensington Oval. Having set the country an ambitious target of producing all its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, she might want to have a stern word with Jos Buttler. We can't have these batters come and destroy the solar panels strategically installed on the roof of Kensington Oval.
Playing against USA, Buttler broke a couple of them, while sending two of his seven sixes to the top. Having looked a little scratchy all World Cup - out four times in 82 balls for 108 runs - Buttler got that timely confidence-building innings in as England ensured their progress into the semi-final of the T20 World Cup 2024. Now that he is among the runs, England have a good chance of making it back to Kensington Oval on Saturday. It's not quite the last piece of the puzzle, but a significant one.
Buttler is among the best T20 batters of all time. Much like Chris Gayle, arguably the greatest of them all, Buttler takes his time at the start of an innings. He is the sixth-highest run-getter in all T20 cricket this year, but his strike-rate in the first 10 balls of an innings is the 18th-best among the 41 batters who have faced 200 such balls. During the IPL, the impression you got was that of a scratching and clawing batter even though he still struck at 141 while averaging 40.
Buttler's response to any struggle has always been to give himself more time in the middle, which in T20 cricket can gnaw at the nerves of the observers. You just don't have that much time in the format. However, he is one of those rare batters with whom you can afford to be patient because the array of his game is so wide that he can make up for it in no time. And when he does, like Gayle, he often makes a high impact.
Buttler is England's captain so his place is never in doubt, but this quality of his ensures that teams are almost always willing to carry him because when he comes off, he wins them matches. However, even batters of his ilk need runs on the board to feel good about themselves, especially when they are the captain and going all in on themselves.
"Really important," Buttler told the broadcasters when asked about his return to form (so to speak). "I've been feeling good all year, to be honest. You don't always get the results, but I feel like I'm hitting the ball well and it's nice to get that confidence. And then it's important to look after my own game as well. As much as you're trying to be captain and have a broad view, I'm still one of 11. I've got to do my job."
To his team, though, it was never a concern, as Chris Jordan made clear. "I wouldn't describe it as a relief at all because seeing him doing it on so many occasions, he really is the leader of the group in every single way," he said. "He's our best player, that's for sure, and when he's in that mode, we definitely tend to follow it. That was just a Jos special today. You get to a point where you could think that it's just normal, but you actually have to take a step back and realise how special he is, and how lucky we are to have him on our side. So I'm definitely glad I'm not bowling at him.
"Definitely not [a concern that he hadn't scored big so far]. He's got so much on his plate anyway. The way Jos plays, his class will always shine through at some point. It's just inevitable, I feel, because he's that good a player and we have that much belief in him."
Thanks to the bowlers' effort in restricting USA to 115, Buttler could afford to give himself a sighter or 11, even though he knew the net run-rate was important. At 6 off 11, he started flexing his muscles, which reached a crescendo with four successive sixes off the left-arm spin of Harmeet Singh.
The second of these was peak Buttler. Having driven one over long-off, he pressed forward, but was actually waiting for the drop in length. It wasn't even a short delivery, but he managed to play the Heinrich Klaasen-style vertical-bat pull for a six over midwicket. A reliable sign that he was well and truly back.
That is not good news for other teams in the semi-finals. Or for the solar panels at Kensington Oval.