England cricketers break their own world record for highest ever ODI score after smashing 498 against Holland
ENGLAND went on another extraordinary, record-breaking batting blitz and surged to the highest total in white-ball history.
Eoin Morgan might have been out for a first-ball duck but his team raised the one-day bar to an almost unbelievable 498-4 in 50 overs against Holland in Amsterdam.
It wasn’t just a record for international matches – beating England’s own 481-6 against Australia at Trent Bridge in 2018 – but also the highest in any professional fixture, surpassing Surrey’s monumental 496-4 against Gloucestershire at the Oval in 2007.
Just three days after Jonny Bairstow’s pyrotechnics brought 136 from 92 balls and an epic victory in the Second Test against New Zealand, England’s batters were at it again.
Jos Buttler plundered 162 not out from 70 balls, including 14 sixes, and Phil Salt and Dawid Malan also scored centuries and that’s the first time England have registered three hundreds in the same ODI innings.
They hoisted a total of 26 sixes – another world record for one-day internationals.
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Of course, the standard of the opposition and relative lack of importance of the match mean that none of England’s three centuries can remotely be compared to Bairstow’s brilliance.
But it was undoubtedly a glorious exhibition of savage striking and the capacity crowd – many of whom made the journey from England – lapped it up.
Frequently, spectators, officials and even Dutch players disappeared into the bushes to try to find balls whacked for six. Around £1,000 worth of white Kookaburra balls were lost.
Buttler, dropped on 17 and 35, reached his century from 47 deliveries, the second-fastest hundred for England behind his own record of 46 balls.
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Buttler now has England’s top three quickest one-day hundreds and, almost every time a Dutch bowler landed the ball on a length, it disappeared from his blade straight back over his head for six.
He reached his 150 from 65 deliveries, one slower than the world record of 64 held by South Africa’s AB de Villiers.
Buttler, who scored four centuries for Rajasthan Royals in the recent Indian Premier League, was promoted to No.4, up a place or two from his normal slot in the 50-over order. He looks certain to stay there.
Buttler said: “The IPL couldn’t have gone better for me and certainly that gives you a lot of confidence. This was a good wicket, we got a great start and that gave a licence really to attack.
“I had two months of no cricket after a tough Ashes tour and that was really refreshing. I turned up at the IPL with a lot of motivation and freshness and that was the key to getting back to enjoying cricket.”
Salt scored his first century for England and Malan became only the second England batsman after Buttler to register hundreds in all three formats – Tests, one-dayers and Twenty20.
Then Lancashire’s Liam Livingstone applied some brutal finishing touches with 66 not out from 22 balls, including 32 off a single over from spinner Philippe Boissevain.
If the fifth ball of the 50th over had gone for six rather than four – it landed a few feet inside the boundary – England would have reached the magical 500 because Livingstone pummelled the last delivery into the crowd.
England’s fourth hundred took just 36 balls and they advanced from 400 to 498 in a further 37 deliveries. These are incredible rates of progress.
As Test captain Ben Stokes said in a tweet: “Could be the first time that the highlights are the full 50 overs.”
What a spectacular start to new white-ball Matthew Mott’s career with England after the former coach of Australia’s all-conquering women’s team was hired by team supremo Rob Key.
Stokes, Joe Root and Bairstow were missing because of the Test series against the Kiwis but, otherwise, England sent their strongest squad of fit and available players on this rare excursion into mainland Europe.
Some will describe this as the ultimate in clinical professionalism, others might regard it as pointless bullying. Either way, there are two more matches against the Netherlands – tomorrow (Sun) and on Wednesday.
Amongst the carnage, Morgan was out for a golden duck and opener Jason Roy made one from seven balls before bowled by seamer Shane Snater, who happens to be his cousin. Snater’s mother is the sister of Roy’s mum.
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Holland got nowhere near their target, of course, but opener Max O’Dowd and wicketkeeper Scott Edwards made half-centuries. The final margin of England’s win was 232 runs.
Moeen Ali captured three wickets, left-armers David Willey, Reece Topley and Sam Curran two each and Malan snared the final scalp with his occasional leg-breaks.