New England Stay True to Their Word in Record Win over New Zealand
England had promised a new era in one-day cricket, but few could have expected it to go quite as well as it did against New Zealand.
All the chat before the series opener against the Kiwis had been about forgetting the dismal Cricket World Cup campaign and starting afresh.
Some familiar faces had been jettisoned, with the selectors deciding to turn the page and move forward with young blood. England needed to move out of the dark ages in 50-over cricket; it was time for a revolution, not evolution.
Before the first game, home captain Eoin Morgan said, per Stephen Brenkley in the Independent: "For a long time now, we’ve been behind the eight-ball in one-day cricket and we’ve fallen behind by a long way, and it’s time to catch up."
England had talked the talk, yet few believed they would immediately go out and walk the walk.
In that respect, what happened in the first ODI at Edgbaston beggared belief. It wasn’t so much as the gentle winds of change, more a hurricane blowing through the changing rooms.
The nation that had been embarrassed by Bangladesh back on March 9 in Adelaide made headlines again, only this time for all the right reasons. The nation that had been bowled out for 123 the last time they faced the Black Caps made amends in spectacular fashion.
England thrashed their way to 408 for nine after being put into bat. That is not a typo. Four hundred and eight runs, all made in just 50 overs.
Powered by centuries from Joe Root and Jos Buttler, they had the statisticians working overtime. OptaJim was certainly busy on Twitter:
Bishen Jeswant of ESPN Cricinfo confirmed it was England’s biggest margin of victory in terms of runs, while their final total easily surpassed their previous best of 391, posted against Bangladesh 11 years ago.
It could, though, have been very different. Back in the dark old days—all of three months ago—such a score would never have been anything more than a pipe dream.
Forget about the team that had been selected: This was about a change in mindset.
When opening batsman Jason Roy slapped the first ball of the match low to Martin Guptill at backward point, this new England did not panic.
When Alex Hales fell for 20 to leave the score on 50 for two inside eight overs, this new England refused to stop being aggressive in their approach.
When four wickets went down for the addition of 31 runs to leave the score on 202 for six, this new England just continued to attack the bowlers. Over and over again, the hits just kept on coming from their bats.
The result of refusing to take a backward step in the face of adversity was a mammoth total—the type of score the old England would never have had a sniff of reaching.
Root and Buttler were brilliant, but so too were skipper Morgan—who made 50 at faster than a run-a-ball rate—and Adil Rashid, who helped put on 177 for the seventh wicket.
That stand between Buttler and Rashid, who made 69, was particularly crucial. When they came together, England still had more than 20 overs to bat, yet just four wickets remaining. A score around 300 seemed a long way off. By the end, though, it was barely visible in the rear-view mirror.
There was never a period of consolidation, just a realisation that, on an excellent wicket, they needed as many as possible against opponents who had finished as runners-up in the Cricket World Cup.
In the end, England got more than enough. To put it into context, they had only made more than 408 in two of their previous 10 Test innings.
Of course, the home side also turned in an impressive performance in the opening Test against New Zealand earlier in the summer, winning in dramatic circumstances on Day 5 at Lord’s.
Yet they followed that display up with a disappointing showing at Headingley in the next match, proving that there are growing pains during times of change.
That sentiment stands for the one-day squad too: A 210-run triumph over the Black Caps was the perfect start on the road to the next World Cup, which is held in England in 2019.
However, there will be times when it doesn’t go so well, when the exuberance of youth leads to silly mistakes.
There will undoubtedly be defeats along the way: those days when 202 for six becomes 240 all out in a hurry.
England fans will have to deal with the odd bump in the road, but performances like the one in Birmingham make the disappointments much more bearable. Now they just need to keep it going, starting with the second ODI at the Oval on Friday.
