Jos Buttler hopes to take his irrepressible one-day international form into the second match of the series against South Africa on Saturday.
The wicketkeeper-batsman flogged 105 from 76 balls in a 39-run Duckworth-Lewis victory yesterday to put England one up in the five-match series, which now heads to Port Elizabeth.
Remarkably Buttler’s fourth ODI ton was also his slowest, as he took 73 balls to reach the milestone, although that statistic says more about the astonishing brevity of his previous three efforts.
“The longer that can continue the better obviously,” Buttler, who admits he was raring to go after being a non-playing member of England’s Test party for the last six weeks, told ecb.co.uk.
“I haven’t played a game for a while, and I’ve been on this tour and training hard and I was really excited to get out there today.
“I love trying to score my runs as fast as I can and anytime you score a hundred for England it’s so special – what a feeling to do it in the first game of the series and that should really set me up for the rest of the series too.
“Start again in the next game but obviously with the confidence coming off the back of this innings.”
England’s 399 for nine represented their highest overseas total in a one-day international. Eight batsmen cleared the rope during the innings – England’s previous high was six – and Buttler is relishing the new-found freedom in white-ball cricket under Head Coach Trevor Bayliss.
“It sends a great message to everyone in our team as well as the opposition – we’re capable of these sorts of totals,” added Buttler.
“In the warm-up game we got 360-odd as well; we know we’re very capable of getting these scores.
Thanks for all the messages. Some great fun out there yesterday and a good start to the series! https://t.co/oFCSrtUrNf
— Jos Buttler (@josbuttler) February 4, 2016
“At times we’ll get it wrong, we’ll probably be bowled out for 280 in 40 overs one day, but that’s where we’re trying to take our game to as a side.
“We want to really be pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. On any given day in different conditions it won’t be possible but when it is we want to make sure that we really push ourselves to the limit and try and get as many as we can.
“I’ve loved playing in this side over the last 12 months.
“It’s been great fun, it’s a really good bunch of lads to be involved with.
“Cricket almost comes second behind enjoying each other’s company and everyone pushing each other in training and in games, and really enjoying everyone’s success which is great, and we’ll take that forward and build on it.”
Source: ECB