England seems to have moved forward from their disappointing World Cup campaign, as the Eoin Morgan-led side handed a thumping defeat to New Zealand in the 1st ODI in Edgbaston.
Riding on scorching centuries from Joe Root and Jos Buttler England managed to register their highest ODI total and biggest win in terms of runs.
England posted 408 on the board, in reply the Black Caps could only manage 198, thus winning the match by 210 runs.
“You can look back and say what you want about the World Cup, myself I’m looking forward, and I’m really excited,” Morgan said.
“Today encouraged me even more to look further down the line and give guys more of a chance to grow as cricketers, because the more games we can get into our youngsters, the more performances they put in,” he added.
Buttler was the star for the hosts as he not only made a swift century, but also put himself on second place as fastest century maker for England. He also holds fastest century record for England.
“I’m as surprised as anybody, I certainly know how difficult it is coming into international cricket as a youngster,” Morgan insisted. “Joe Root was outstanding, followed by an unbelievable innings from Jos Buttler.
“But, obviously, the longevity of what we do might take a little more time because the key is consistency for us,” he added. “Today is an amazing performance but the closer we can get to that every game, the better we become.”
The chase was always going to be difficult for New Zealand and they required something spectacular from their top-order in particular. This, however, didn’t happen as they failed to even put up a fight.
Brendon McCullum was dismissed in the first over itself, and then it was a one-way traffic from that point onward. Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson showed some resistance but it was insufficient.
“I think sometimes you’ve got to admit when you get it wrong at the toss,” New Zealand skipper McCullum said. “And the way the ball started holding up a little bit in the second innings probably suggested we did get it wrong.”
“That was unfortunate but I still don’t think it should take away from how outstanding they were with the bat and the ball and in the field,” he added. “It was a complete performance from England and we’ve got some work to do.”
