A high benchmark was set by England in the opening match of the series but a young side is excited about trying for a repeat, however New Zealand are keen to show their response
Where does a sports team go after the perfect performance? Having reached the empyrean heights of scoring 400 in an ODI and then followed it by polishing New Zealand off to win by a record margin in the first game of the series that is the question now facing England.
It seems an unlikely situation for them to be in, when you look back on a World Cup campaign that three months ago finished as one of their most abject. It would have taken a madman then to conceive of the feats inspired by Jos Buttler, Joe Root and Adil Rashid at Edgbaston on Tuesday. Such was the staggering audacity of England’s display, and their subversion of type against a New Zealand side who are among the most aggressive in the 50-over game, that it was like imagining 1990s Wimbledon abandoning long-ball football to take the tiki-taka out of Lionel Messi’s Barcelona.
A pessimist would say the only way is down from here but they are no longer admitted within the camp. This young England side, seemingly inspired by their dashing opponents in both Tests and ODIs, have demonstrated what they are capable of and are prepared to try and repeat the trick. “We’ve now done that, we know we can do it,” Root said at The Oval, before asking himself the question: “Can we go and do it again on Friday?”
Seeing is believing, of course, and there can be few whose eyes weren’t opened the other night. The first 400-plus score in England, featuring two of the four fastest one-day hundreds by Englishmen, ought to have inspired a few more believers, at a time when the game is seeking to re-establish its billing as one of the summer’s big spectacles. Full houses for the second and third ODIs are expected, keen to study England’s big bang theory.
The dual difficulty, as Root acknowledged, is now about how the team can achieve lift off again while at the same time keeping their feet on the ground.
Joe Root has said he was “absolutely thrilled to bits” for Adil Rashid after his Yorkshire team-mate made a match-defining contribution to the first ODI. Rashid, playing for England for only the second time since 2009, scored 69 off 50 balls and then took 4 for 55 to help seal victory.
“Obviously I knew that he was capable of it, but I’m just thrilled for him and he’ll be keen to get back out there and replicate it on Friday,” Root said.
“He went through a period at Yorkshire where he was put under a lot of pressure with extra responsibility for a young lad and he struggled to deal with it to start with. Over the last couple of years he has managed to do it fantastically well. He has come to know his game a lot better and he’s playing extremely well at the minute. It is exciting to see him start the summer so promisingly.
“I think it will take a few more games to see where he is at. He is a phenomenal talent and I’ve known that for a long time now. He’s done it consistently for Yorkshire and hopefully he can continue to do it for England as well.”
Root, who admitted he sometimes has trouble picking Rashid’s googly, said he felt the legspinning allrounder should be in contention for a potential Test debut in the Ashes, providing competition for Moeen Ali.
“Why not? I’ve seen what he has done in County Championship cricket and you’ve seen he can perform at international level in one-day cricket so I’m sure if give then opportunity he’d love to show everyone what he can do in that format as well,” Root said.”I think competition for places is exactly what you need. We’ve got Moeen, who is a fine spinner who has proven that over the last year since coming into the team, and that sort of competition will bring together a really strong team so hopefully we can get that in all three facets of the game.”
“Obviously the way we played there was pretty much the perfect performance from our perspective,” he said. “I suppose our challenge now is to try and do that more consistently. It’s certainly something that we’ll look to replicate on Friday, we don’t know what the surface is going to be quite like yet but we’ll go out there with a similar frame of mind to take on New Zealand. We’re not naive enough to think they won’t come back hard at us, because they’re a great side.”
Kane Williamson acknowledged that England had been “outstanding” at Edgbaston but said New Zealand hoped to be the aggressors once again when the teams meet on Friday, as they were during a messy Cake Tin meeting at the World Cup.
New Zealand’s approach to the game has won them many new fans but, as shown in the Lord’s Test last month or even the World Cup final, it is a combustible concoction and one that can leave the Black Caps with blackened faces. England may have some explosive material on their hands but they will have to be careful how they use it – though even spectacular failure would be preferable to the white flag the team has regularly flown in white-ball cricket.
“To a degree there can be some inconsistencies with an aggressive style of play but it’s a very enjoyable style and it’s one that pushes yourself and the team, and pushes boundaries to see how good you can be,” Williamson said. “England certainly did that in the last match and we’ve been trying to do that for some time.
“It’s about getting used to the style, if that’s the plan of attack you want to take and getting comfortable with it so you can go out and be more consistent. With two teams looking to play aggressive cricket, there can be some one-sided games. But it’s a style I’m sure everyone’s enjoying watching. I suppose most teams in world cricket are looking to push the boundaries of one-day cricket.”
That mindset was confirmed when Williamson said that the problems posed by chasing a 400-plus score were something New Zealand had “spoken a bit about”. It has only been done once before, at altitude in Johannesburg, but it will surely happen again at some point.
For Root, who has now scored five one-day hundreds in little more than a year (leaving only six England batsmen above him), breaking through boundaries has become a regular occurrence. Such is his level of confidence that in the Oval nets he was attempting to reverse sweep fast bowling; his impudent grin while batting was as memorable as England’s fresh dynamism at Edgbaston.
Even when they slipped to 202 for 6 after 30 overs, there was not so much a fear of failure as a fear of missing out. “It was exciting, it was great fun,” Root said of the atmosphere in the dressing room as Buttler and Rashid set about New Zealand during a world-record stand of 177. “It was spectacular to watch, Jos almost made you feel like every ball was going to go out of the park.”
At least for now, there is an intoxicating sense of possibility around England, though the inevitable failure to come (at some point) will test the faith. Something intangible has changed since the World Cup, it seems, though even Root is not sure what exactly.
“It is hard to put your finger on it but I’ll tell you one thing that is really exciting, we’ve still got guys who didn’t get off the ground the other day who are very explosive batters who can really take the game away from the opposition too. So I’m looking forward to them getting big scores later in the series.”