England captain Eoin Morgan lauded Jos Buttler's unbeaten century as 'one of his best ever' international knocks after they overcame Sri Lanka to all but secure a semi-final spot in the T20 World Cup.
Buttler blazed 101 not out from 67 balls in Sharjah, sharing a fourth-wicket partnership of 112 with the captain to transform England's fortunes after they had slumped to 35-3 in the powerplay.
The wicketkeeper-batter's explosive innings came just two days after his undefeated 71 led England to a resounding victory against Australia - and he has now registered international hundreds in all three formats.
- Jos Buttler's sublime century puts England on brink of semi-finals
- Nasser Hussain: Eoin Morgan got everything right vs Sri Lanka
Morgan, whose side went on to complete their fourth successive victory in the tournament, triumphing by 26 runs, said: "I thought Jos Buttler played one of his best ever innings in an England shirt.
"It was incredible to be at the other end and watch the ebb and flow and then the sheer domination towards the end.
"He really is one of the best in the game - it's a privilege to play with him and great to have him in our team.
"He has an unbelievable skill level and the calm nature in which he goes about it - he combines the two with reading the game and knowing when to score.
"If he gets on top, he manages to punish you. To see him in this sort of form, now, in the group stages now bodes well for the later stages."
Buttler enjoyed a good day behind the stumps as well, running out Pathum Nissanka in the first over of Sri Lanka's reply and then reacting superbly to scythe down Dasun Shanaka's stumps with a direct hit later in the innings.
The 31-year-old admitted the second of those dismissals - which came just after England had been forced to reorganise their plans for the death overs after paceman Tymal Mills pulled up injured - actually gave him greater satisfaction than his maiden T20I century.
"It was probably the favourite bit of my day," said Buttler. "We were under pressure for long parts of that chase so to take that wicket was crucial. I was delighted with that.
"I'm excited about where I am with my batting and excited for the rest of the tournament. I found it really tough early on - we were finding the spin bowlers especially tricky to get away with that low bounce.
"I managed to get a really good partnership going with Morgs. For a time we were thinking 120 might be a good score, so we were working towards that and then we started to get going a bit.
"At the end I was pretty calm but at that stage I'd batted a long time, just stayed patient and backed myself to come good. The death hitting part of my game has strengthened and I felt like I used a lot of experience."
Morgan's innings of 40 from 36 balls provided some relief for the England skipper, who went into the tournament on the back of a low run of scores in the Indian Premier League and had only batted once prior to the Sri Lanka match.
He added: "You have to believe because if you don't, nobody else will. It was a tough test but it was nice to get out there with one of my best mates, enjoying ourselves and getting a partnership going to put something on the board we could try and defend.
"I'm incredibly proud of everything we've done tonight. The guys had to fight unbelievably hard, particularly with the ball and probably in the first 10 overs with the bat.
"Conditions here continue to change and I thought our all-round fielding performance was pretty good, given how wet things got.
"Tymal going down asked another question of us but Liam Livingstone and Moeen Ali stepped up unbelievably with the ball. I can't fault our guys."
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