Posted by The last time England hit 400, almost 50 ODIs ago, they near as damn it made it to 500. It’s been a while. Probably shouldn’t complain.
On that occasion, Eoin Morgan made a golden duck and a couple of weeks later he stopped playing cricket. England’s first 400 had come in his first match in charge. Captaincy handovers seem to improve the odds of high scores. Maybe they should implement a rota system.
However you slice and dice it, victory by 238 runs is a very good start to Brook’s captaincy. But let’s slice and dice it in a mildly unflattering way, if only to counter the pervasive air of self-satisfied back-slapping.
Jacksob Bethwill
Even before the game, this looked a strong and percussive England batting line-up. It looks sensible. It looks like it would make sizeable totals pretty reliably. Was the flailing ODI team really that simple to fix?
Mmmmprobably not. This is a great batting line-up if you want to make 400 and a nicely varied bowling line-up if you’re defending that many. But would these bowlers feel confident defending a far smaller total? Specifically, who is England’s fifth bowler?
It’s easy to see how Jacob Bethell’s promise as a batter could transmogrify into consistent performance because it’s sort of happening before our eyes. That doesn’t really tell us anything about his bowling though and as things stand, he has just 42 wickets to his name as a professional cricketer. Bethell’s only half the story though. Will Jacks is there too with 130 wickets in 307 professional appearances.
Two excellent cricketers. Two excellent cricketers whose excellence is largely defined by their batting.
Bethell took 1-18 yesterday – which is handy. He did so off 2.4 overs – which is less handy. It’s the kind of thing you’re happy with from your sixth bowler – likewise Jacks’ 0-0 off 0 overs.
On days when the opposition are swinging like crazy because they’re chasing 400, part-time bowlers can be pretty damn effective. On days when some sort of total is being constructed and your fifth bowler is required to bowl more than 16 balls, they can start to feel like more of a liability.
Glass check… half full!
But then, you know, maybe it’s manageable? Bethell bowls slow left-arm, Jacks bowls off-spin and Joe Root’s variety pack of deliveries is a useful third option. At least these players make the bowling a little less right-arm fast-medium. Plus there’s always the electrifying military medium of Brook himself as a fallback.
Make 400 and then muddle-through. It’s not the worst strategy.
What about Kemar Roach…..??