The unstoppable storm that set the stage on fire

The hunger of Beast Butler's bat remained unsatiated this season even though it had hunted and haunted the opponent bowlers...

"His form is above and beyond what you expect, even from a player of Jos's quality", Sankakara said a few days back, about the remarkable performances of Butler. He joined the "800+ runs in a single season" club this year and finished the tournament with 863 runs, overtaking Warner's 848 milestone. For now, in the elite list for maximum runs in a season, only Kohli stands before Butler with 973 runs. If not there was a small decline in Butler's performances in between, most possibly, he might have stolen Kohli's spot even. He tightly held the orange cap and no one was daring enough to take it from him. In that way, his dream season paved the way for Rajasthan's final spot, after 13 long years.

Not mere runs, the impact he made is much more important. Out of 2943 runs hit by RR in this season, about 30% of runs were hit by Butler alone. Except in finals and on one other occasion, RR's scoreboard had never read less than 150 and their team average is astonishingly 173 and all the courtesy is parcelled to one man, Jos Butler. His bat was raised eight times in the 17 innings he played, as he added four half-centuries and four centuries to his name. Out of these eight big knocks, four innings were match-winning knocks too. His fourth century of the season, came on the critical ticket to the final moment, against RCB. With that, he equalled Kohli's record for the maximum number of centuries, in a single season. 

Scoring runs and making the impact was no accident. It was the result of how Butler built up his innings. He is a dynamic player who can read the situation and play according to that. The bat never swings without any intent. It delivered what the circumstances had demanded. Rather than striking from ball one, he took his time to read the pitch. But once he was settled, he became dangerous. In the beginning, RR was batting first for most of the matches. So, Butler had taken the liberty to utilise some balls to set the rhythm and from there, he converted it into a notable inning. But in their virtual semi-final against RCB, Butler handled it with a different mind-set and started scoring a bunch of runs right from the first over he played to panic the opposition. 

In the T20 format, what hurts the fielding team most is the boundaries and sixers. In this season, Butler topped the lists for maximum boundaries (83) and sixers (45) too. To put it in a nutshell, he hit a boundary for every seven balls he faced and a six for every 13 balls. He faced 578 balls this season and scored at a strike rate of 149. 

When we dissect his performances against spin and pace, he scored heavily against the spinners. At the same time, even the new ball and the power play overs did not challenge him. He handled the lateral movement, extra bounce, swing and all the other terrifying elements of pace with ease, removing the dangers in the path of the batsmen to follow. He played the anchor role at the same time he didn't miss the opportunity to score runs in PP too. Even though he played well against speedsters, he was the specialist surgeon against spin bowlers. Mumbai Indians can never forget his magnificent four back to back sixers against Hrithik Shokeen. By the way, Butler had done a doctorate in choosing his targets too. He wore his armour and went to defending mode, against dangerous bowlers, to safeguard his wicket. He was patiently waiting for his prey, and once he came across them, he switched to attacking mode and his bat swung like a sword.

He could not be sent out for the same reason. Out of his 17 innings, 5 times, he stood till death overs, 2 times, he did not lose his wicket but only 4 times, he got out in the powerplay itself. This is what made him Mr Dependable.

Not just his batting capabilities, but even his skilful cricketing mind was witnessed, in this season. He has been known for his quick and flexible wrist, his power hitting, shot selection, his timing, and using the entire pitch for different shots - all of these things are Butler's special. But along with that, his counterattack for every strike of enemy encounter took him to places this year. KKR came with the perfect game plan to attack him, by bowling full length balls between the leg and middle stump, as it was his weak spot. But Butler managed it by stealing singles. He kept on rotating the strike and did not fail to fire some crackers when it was a poor ball from the bowler. All these little things brought a big change for Butler, this time. 

The previous season was not that good for Butler. He scored 254 runs in seven innings with an average of 36.2. He could not take part in the second part of the IPL due to the child's birth. Even in the previous seasons, he had crossed 500 runs, only once in 2018. In all the other years, he had scored less than 328 only. His recent form before the IPL was not that impressive. Even after all these odds, Rajasthan was determined to retain him for 10 crores and they did not even regret it at any point of this season. 

The team was dependent heavily on him and him only. He was the top scorer of Rajasthan this time and the story does not end with that. Other than Sanju Samson, no other batsman of Rajasthan has scored even 50 percent of what Butler had scored. If not for the Orange cap holder Butler and the Purple cap holder Chahal, the team would not have finished in the top 2 and managed to reach the finals. 

"I used to be lazy and live off just one good score. I won't be like that anymore", Butler said a few days back. As promised, his great form continued throughout this season. 

Recently, English magazines had a wild argument about whether Butler can do the same with test cricket too. Whether that will happen or not, he already proved that, undoubtedly, he is terrific in white-ball cricket.

All these knocks will be etched in the memories of IPL fans.