England achieved a notable, if somewhat niche, world first in the first game of Harry Brook’s full-time captaincy, becoming the first team to have all of their top seven make it to 30 in the same innings.
Criticised over the winter for a tendency to throw away wickets after strong starts, England showed that it is possible to get a massive team total without any one batter making a massive individual score, making the first score of 400 not to include a century.
All of England's top seven score 30-plus against West Indies
Jacob Bethell was the star, notching 82 from No.6, but fell 18 short of what would have been a maiden professional century. Joe Root, Harry Brook and Ben Duckett all made half-centuries, while Jamie Smith - promoted to open - Jos Buttler and Will Jacks fell in the thirties. There had been seven previous occasions of all of the top six making it to 30, but that had never been extended to seven.
1st ODI, England vs West Indies
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- Ball by ball Over
The previous highest total not to include a hundred was South Africa’s 392-6 against Pakistan in 2007, in which Jacques Kallis top-scored with 88 not out. This was England’s sixth score of 400 and above in men’s ODIs, and followed on almost a decade after and at the same venue as their first, Eoin Morgan’s England having made 408-9 against New Zealand in June 2015 to kick off another ODI rebuild.
Like then, England came into this game on the back of an ignominious global tournament elimination. Then, it was a group-stage World Cup exit at the hands of Bangladesh. Now, it was three defeats from three at the Champions Trophy, following on from a poor World Cup defence in 2023 and a string of bilateral series defeats that brought an end to Jos Buttler’s captaincy. The journey that began for England in 2015 ended with a World Cup crown at Lord’s in 2019.
Whether Brook achieves similar glory in South Africa in 2027 remains to be seen, but his side have at least given him the perfect start with bat in hand.
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