Cricket: England’s greatest one-day side?
Just 18 months ago, England’s one-day side were a “laughing stock”, said Paul Newman in the Daily Mail. They “stank out” the World Cup with embarrassing, outdated cricket, and were knocked out in the group stage. Yet since then, the team have undergone an extraordinary transformation – and last week they reached “a new high”. In their third one-day international (ODI) against Pakistan, they made an astonishing 444 runs – the highest score, by any team, in the history of the format. Record after record tumbled: Alex Hales hit 171, a record for an Englishman in an ODI; Jos Buttler reached 50 off just 22 balls, England’s fastest half-century in an ODI. They may have lost their fifth match, but the hosts still won the series 4-1, confirming that they are now the greatest England side ever to play 50-over cricket.
The turnaround has been nothing short of remarkable, said Nasser Hussain in the same paper. And a “huge amount of credit” must go to team captain Eoin Morgan. He understood that as long as England regarded ODIS as a short form of Test cricket, they would keep playing an “old-fashioned” version of the game. So he encouraged them to treat the format as a longer form of Twenty20 cricket – to play aggressively and “fearlessly”. That change in mindset has been a huge success: since the World Cup, England have recorded six of their eight highest ODI scores, and hit a century, on average, every other match. When it comes to batting, said Simon Hughes in The Times, this “phenomenal” side have no equals. This summer they’ve averaged 6.5 runs per over; the World Cup holders, Australia, have only managed 5.63 this year. Indeed, the batsmen are so strong that Jonny Bairstow – a player who has scored three Test centuries in the past year – isn’t even in the firstchoice line-up. The bowlers, too, are a “potent” force, combining pace and control. Mark Wood is the fastest English bowler of his generation, reaching speeds of 95mph; Chris Woakes has improved beyond “all recognition”.
Still, England are not yet the finished article, said Nick Hoult in The Daily Telegraph. Their fielding lags some distance behind their batting and bowling: they still drop too many catches. This is a young squad (only Liam Plunkett is older than 30) and their inexperience has been exposed under pressure: earlier this year, for instance, they “fluffed” a 2-0 lead in South Africa, going on to lose the series. And the disappointing loss against Pakistan, in the final ODI, deprived them of a chance to go the whole summer unbeaten in 50-over cricket. If the team can become more “ruthless”, they will be truly unstoppable.