Master blasters
Hales and Bairstow lead the way as England power to world-record 481
England broke their own world record for the highest one-day international total when they pummelled and pulverised Australia for 481 runs off 50 overs to go 3-0 up with two to play. There was no better way for England to acquire an aweinspiring charisma as favourites for the World Cup a year from now.
On this same ground two years ago England had scored 444 for three against Pakistan. This time they sailed past their own world record with 33 balls in hand. In professional cricket only Surrey have got closer to 500, when they scored 496 at the Oval with a very short boundary to one side, and only New Zealand Women have scored more in an ODI, when they hit Ireland for 490 for four earlier this month.
Nobody could have trashed wayward bowling better than Alex Hales did in the course of his 147 off 92 balls, or Eoin Morgan, who set a record by making the quickest 50 for England in terms of balls, only 21.
But the demolition was begun by Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow, who are simply the best opening pair England have had in their 47 years of one-day international cricket, given the way Roy has improved in the past two games. With superlative strokeplay Roy and Bairstow hit Australia’s pace bowlers – and Billy Stanlake and Jhye Richardson could grow into serious Test bowlers – off their length.
No longer is Roy a souped-up pinch-hitter, but a high-class opening batsman, now he has stopped trying to hit the ball too hard, a fitting partner for Bairstow, who gives the impression he could hit every ball to or over the boundary.
It was as if Roy and Bairstow were wallpapering in their opening stand of 159 off 19.3 overs: they began at the top and everything unravelled, for Australia, from there.
By hitting over the top England’s openers forced the Australian fielders back to the edge of the semicircles, and then they did not neglect the singles on offer. England’s running between wickets – most notably Bairstow’s willingness to sprint two for Roy – was as commendable as some of their other world records, like the most boundaries in an ODI innings, 62 of them. Plenty were cannily targeted towards the West Bridgford stand, the shortest side of the ground.
Not only the pitch, which was the usual Trent Bridge belter for whiteball cricket, but even the cloudy weather was on England’s side: the one batsman to tire and lose his shape while hitting was Hales and he was into his 140s by then.
Hales chose his home ground to state his case for inclusion in England’s World Cup XI, not simply the squad, and he would certainly merit a place if England had to increase their run-rate in a qualifying game. He does not so much have long levers as bat like one long lever, clearing his front foot out of the way and swinging to all parts.
Morgan stepped up the run-rate further still with his pulls, pummels and sundry swipes. For the transformation he has wrought, Morgan deserved to become England’s highest run-scorer in ODIS. A measure of this transformation is that he surpassed Ian Bell, who was opening the batting as recently as the 2015 World Cup, the personification of orthodoxy.
Historians analysing the causes of the highest ODI innings will also note the Australians’ deficiencies in the 50-over format, at domestic and international level. Their administrators have made their domestic 50-over competition into a start-ofseason tournament, compressed into October to make space for their T20 Big Bash.
Australia’s main bowlers had played a total of 37 ODIS going into this game, whereas England’s least experienced, Mark Wood, had played 30 himself. Their pace bowlers, blown off course by Roy and Bairstow, were deflected far too soon from trying to hit the top of off stump.
They had no experience to guide them, and no captain at hand either, because Tim Paine was keeping wicket and physically too far from his bowlers to communicate during an over – and Paine was captaining in only his third ODI.
So Australia did not bowl enough yorkers, whether straight or wide of off stump, until the end of England’s innings, and they bowled both sides of the wicket. In the absence of any movement in the air or off the pitch, the Australians needed a good wrist-spinner. A couple of overs of D’arcy Short was no substitute for Adil Rashid, who flummoxed Aaron Finch, again not opening, inexplicably.
Australia were powerless to prevent England setting one more record: their biggest run-margin of victory in an ODI, 242. The scoreboard pressure was, of course, intolerable but the tourists could have at least aimed to bat for 50 overs, to score 300 and to play good cricket.
England’s spinners shared seven wickets while their fielding, never under strain, was as sharp as could be. The Riverside tomorrow hosts the fourth match of an ever more one-sided series.