You’re at the bar with one of your idols. All you need to do now is play it cool.

Jos Buttler was placed in that very scenario when he met his own idol, South Africa legend AB de Villiers, during his IPL stint at Mumbai Indians.

But speaking on Rajasthan Royals’ official podcast, Buttler explained how time at the bar with de Villiers didn’t go exactly to plan…

“Got to know him [de Villiers] a little bit during the IPL and actually when I was at Mumbai, he said just at the start of the game, ‘We’ll catch up for a beer at the hotel after’,” said Buttler. “I was so excited, I was like ‘This is so cool, I’m going for a beer with AB de Villiers, this is amazing’.

Then I get back to the hotel and [to] Louise, I think my fiancee at the time [now wife], I’m like, “Listen, we’re going straight to the bar. AB de Villiers is going to be there for a drink, this is going to be awesome, and just play it cool’. I was like, ‘Play it cool, he’s my idol, don’t say anything stupid…’ So then, we’d probably been chatting to him for 20 minutes, having a great time, I’m loving it, and he’s obviously got a pretty strong Afrikaans accent. About 20 minutes into the conversation, Louise just goes, ‘So what part of New Zealand are you from?’ And that just absolutely killed me.”