CHENNAI: On the penultimate day of the Masters, Max Homa, the American golfer, was 5-under, chasing Collin Morikawa and Scottie Scheffler. After what had been a challenging day at the Augusta National Golf Course, Homa knew he had his task cut out on Sunday.
Yet, he maintained a positive outlook. "I played today with a ton of gratitude and appreciation for the opportunity to do this. I'm really glad I get to do it again tomorrow," the 33-year-old had said on Saturday evening, before adding a quote you'd want to remember: "If I catch myself thinking about what can go wrong, I let myself dream about what can go right."
While Homa could not go all the way in the Masters as he finished third in a tie with Collin Morikawa and Tommy Fleetwood, little did the American know what he had said on Saturday reverberated in another 33-year-old athlete's ears halfway around the world two days later at the Eden Gardens Stadium in Kolkata. Jos Buttler.
Batting in front of a packed home crowd, Buttler was on 42 from 33 balls, attempting a record run chase of 224 against Kolkata Knight Riders. The scoreboard, at that moment, read Rajasthan Royals 128/6 in 12 overs. They needed 96 runs from 36 balls. If the challenge of chasing down a run rate of 16 with four wickets in hand was not enough, Buttler was battling his own demons in the head.
This season, and the past months, has not been easy. He had a horrible ODI World Cup. A couple of half-centuries came against West Indies, and a decent stint followed in the SA20 league (408 runs at 40.80 average while striking at 143.66) for Paarl Royals. Just when it looked like things were getting better in the lead up to the T20 World Cup, Buttler fell into a slump again. His first five innings in the IPL read — 11, 11, 13, 100 & 8.
There is a set template with which Buttler constructs his innings and that was not working. Buttler starts relatively slow in the powerplay before exploding in overs 5-6. He picks up momentum from there into the middle-overs and sustains before doubling down at the death. From the outset, one might say that how is it different from someone like Virat Kohli. But there is a difference. Buttler's phase wise SR in the IPL since 2022 goes like — PP: 131.8, 7-16: 147.18, 17-20: 211.2. Kohli, meanwhile in the same period, starts off with 133.1, but he slows down in the middle-overs (130.7) before going up to 171 in the death overs. Perhaps, it is one of the many reasons why all of Buttler's IPL hundreds have come in victories — he had six of them until Tuesday. But this season was different. While the century against Royal Challengers Bengaluru lifted the weight of his back, one could see that he was struggling.
That he missed the game against Punjab Kings because of not being fully fit only added to Buttler's woes. Even when he came back for the Kolkata game, it was only as an Impact Player. One could see that he was not 100 per cent. But he and RR stuck to their plans. He will bat through while others explode. And it had worked, but at a cost. Despite being in control in the first half, they had lost wickets against the run of play. And now, everything was riding on Buttler and Rovman Powell. Over the next three overs, they would add 50 runs, but Powell fell.
It was all or nothing for Buttler, and that is when his mind played tricks. The negative thoughts crept in. All the past struggles came back. Did I leave too much for the last three, he thought. But Buttler remembered what Homa said. He decided to think and believe the exact opposite of what was running in his head. "There is a guy called Max Homa, he is a great golfer. I saw a great quote from him that anytime he gets some negative thoughts he allows himself to think and dream the complete opposite. In the last three overs only the negative thoughts came, like thinking it was too much. I tried to think the complete opposite. I sort of dared to dream that I can do it. I can be there at the end and win the match for my team," he would say later on IPLT20.com.
And that positive mindset was all he needed. Buttler already has the skill and cricketing genius as a batter to do the rest. Once the mental battle was won, nothing could stop him. He would farm the strike (he was on strike for all 18 balls at the end), before smashing Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana and Varun Chakravarthy all across Eden Gardens.
Once he knew he was in, Buttler took it deep. He held his nerves, playing three dots in the final over. But none of it mattered. On the final ball of the match, Buttler took the Royals home. The elation in that moment when an intense Buttler threw off his helmet and bat summed up his emotions. He was exhausted, but he got the job done.
If the famous 'f**k it' sticker on his bat put things into perspective and brought him to a good place when he doubts himself in the past, on Tuesday night, Buttler drew inspiration from Homa to believe; to dare to dream.