BAIRSTOW’S WORLD CLASS

CENTURION Jonny Bairstow hailed England’s ruthless demolition of New Zealand and says victory in this oneday series decider has set them up perfectly for next year’s World Cup.

Bairstow smashed the fastest ODI century by an England opener, in 58 balls, as Eoin Morgan’s side eased to their target of 224 with seven wickets and 17.2 overs to spare in Christchurch.

Bairstow said: “We’d spoken many times about it being 2-2 in the series – and this was a huge game.

“People had spoken about it and compared it to a knockout game potentially in the World Cup next year.

“We’d lost the last game and that wasn’t good enough from us. We knew we needed to put in a clinical and ruthless performance and that’s exactly what we did.”

This was England’s sixth successive one-day series win and concludes a fine winter for Morgan’s men after they also hammered Australia 4-1 in January.

Coach Trevor Bayliss said: “We’ve been working towards this for a while.

“We’re 15 months from the World Cup and we are looking for those performances in one-off matches.

“It’s not easy but these guys are producing it more and more often, and through that we will see even more consistency.”

Bairstow’s brutal knock, which saw him accelerate from 50 to 100 in just 20 balls, was also the thirdfastest hundred by an England player in ODIs.