England smash world record for highest ODI score while Alex Hales hits 171 in run-fest victoryagainst Pakistan at Trent Bridge
Hales set the highest score for an Englishman in one-day cricket as they piled on landmark total of 444-3 to clinch series
ALEX HALES led England in an astonishing orgy of big-hitting as they produced the greatest run feast in one-day international history.
Hales plundered 171 from 122 balls and registered the highest innings of all time by an England batsman in limited-overs cricket.
He will certainly be buoyed by the experience after a series of sorry scores since the Fourth Test.
And England’s total of 444-3 — yes, you read that correctly — against Pakistan at Trent Bridge is the biggest by any team in one-day internationals. This was the 3,773rd of them stretching back to 1970.
It was brutal, ruthless bullying of this hapless Pakistan team. Mis-hits flew into the crowd for six, good deliveries were dispatched for four.
The carnage was so extreme that it took on a curiously predictable, unemotional tone. There is only so much excitement watching 16 sixes and 43 fours in the space of 50 overs. But the crowd loved it.
Hales had been under pressure after a sequence of 6, 12, 7, 14 and his decision to invade the third umpire’s room during the Oval Test.
But, at his home ground and on a pancake-flat pitch, the right-hander gorged himself and broke the record in just the 37th over.
Robin Smith’s figure of 167 not out against Australia at Edgbaston had stood 23 years, back when players wore whites for one-day internationals in this country and games were 55 overs-a-side.
Hales was lbw to the very next ball after passing the record and, incredibly, his departure INCREASED the scoring rate.
Jos Buttler scored one from his first seven balls then flew to England’s all-time fastest fifty in just 22 deliveries, beating Paul Collingwood’s record of 24.
Buttler finished 90 not out from 51 balls while captain Eoin Morgan notched 57 not out from 27.
Their unbroken partnership for the fourth wicket realised 161 from 12 overs.
Joe Root’s 85 in 86 balls was a fifth straight one-day half-century but was tame next to the carnage elsewhere.
Buttler’s boundary from the final ball swept England past the previous highest ODI total of 443-9 by Sri Lanka against Holland in 2006. Amazingly, it was not even the best at Trent Bridge this summer.
Nottinghamshire managed 445-8 against Northants in June! Yesterday, left-arm quickie Wahab Riaz went for 110 runs in ten overs while Azhar Ali and Shoaib Malik bowled four overs for 64 between them.
Believe it or not, Hales was not at his very best. He skied a few, could have been run out twice, was caught off a no-ball on 72 and dropped at extra cover on 114. But he sure nailed plenty of monster hits.
Pakistan would not get close and this rout gave England an unassailable 3-0 in the series and they are unbeaten in white ball cricket this summer.
Burly left-hander Sharjeel Khan made 58 from 30 balls and Ben Stokes, bowling for the first time in five weeks, took a wicket while Chris Woakes snared Pakistan’s top three.
Meanwhile, the reluctance of Morgan to tour Bangladesh next month has forced England to delay naming their one-day squad.
It means England supremo Andrew Strauss has an extra week to try to persuade captain Morgan to visit the troubled country.
The party for the three ODIs was due on September 8 but has been put back to the following week.
