Buttler's 50-Ball 90 Flattens Phoenix as Super Giants Win by 87

Buttler's 90 off 50 dismantled Birmingham at Old Trafford

Jos Buttler carved out 90 runs from just 50 balls against Birmingham Phoenix in the men's Hundred, an innings that decided the contest before the chase began. Manchester Super Giants posted a total Birmingham never threatened, winning by 87 runs.

The Hundred compresses white-ball cricket into 100 balls per side, meaning a single batter in full flow can warp a game beyond recognition. Buttler's strike rate of 180 did exactly that. His template at Old Trafford, his home ground in domestic cricket, was familiar: surgical placement early, then acceleration into the arc over midwicket and down the ground as bowlers lost their lengths chasing variation. The short boundaries on one side of the ground suited his strength square of the wicket, and he has batted on that surface hundreds of times across formats. He controlled the innings from start to finish, rarely offering a chance even as Birmingham cycled through bowling changes.

Birmingham's top order folded, the chase dead within 30 balls

Birmingham needed sustained aggression from ball one. When the top order didn't fire, the required rate became unmanageable within the first 30 deliveries. A chase that falls 87 runs short in a 100-ball game points to systemic failure across the batting order. The middle order was asked to do something close to impossible, and the pressure told.

The margin inflates Manchester Super Giants' net run rate, the kind of cushion that matters when teams are separated by decimal points in a short-format tournament. For Buttler, the innings adds to a body of work in the competition built on match-shaping contributions rather than cameos.