Eoin Morgan’s men beat their previously held record for the highest ODI score in men’s cricket, blasting a jaw-dropping 498/4 in their 50 overs in a victory over the Netherlands that couldn’t have been more dominating for the tourists on June 17.
In a power-packed performance with the bat, the visitors overhauled their previous highest score in ODIs and almost produced 50-over cricket’s maiden 500. They missed out by just two runs in the end of achieving the unprecedented and once unthinkable cliff in the game’s history.
Flexing their muscles and batting depth after losing the toss and put into bat first on a flat batting beauty, England surpassed their 481/6 made against Australia back in 2018 in Trent Bridge. England have been running riot with the bat since the 2015 World Cup, recording five 400 and above scores in men’s 50-over cricket.
In their latest in Amstelveen, they had Philip Salt, Dawid Malan and the mighty Jos Buttler all scoring daddy hundreds against a hapless Netherlands attack. Salt produced his 122 off just 93 balls, while Malan smashed his 125 off 109 deliveries to lay a foundation for a scintillating assault by Buttler.
The recent IPL’s ‘Purple Cap’ holder continued his rich vein of form with one of the quickest hundreds one will see. Batting No.4, he scored an eye-catching 162 not out off just 70 deliveries, including 7 fours and 14 sixes. If he were opening the innings, Buttler might just have produced ODI cricket’s maiden triple century.
Providing England’s innings its final touches, Liam Livingstone struck a 22-ball 66 with 6 fours and 6 sixes in his blistering cameo that took England to the brink of 500. While that didn’t happen, the three lions would’ve grinned and shirked their heads in disbelief over how far they’ve taken their one-day game with the bat.
Netherlands’ only real moment of joy through the innings arrived when their seamer Shane Snarter got opener Jason Roy out bowled in a “family affair” as one of the commentators deemed it. Snarter and Roy’s mums happened to be sisters in Zimbabwe before Roy’s family shifted to South Africa where he was born, and from there to England, while Snarter went on to become a Dutch representative on the field.
Other than that, it was all too disappointing for the only associate member of the ICC Super League as they were smashed around the park in the absence of some of their established players, who couldn’t find NOC from their respective county clubs in the UK.
In a hopeless chase in the second half, only opener Max O’Dowd (55) and wicketkeeper Scott Edwards (72) managed to take the game back to the English and allowed the Netherlands to gain some sense of respectability to their score.
Given the pressure mounted on the opposition by their batters, England bowlers had a field outing, with Moeen Ali (3/57) leading the pack via a three-fer and David Willey (2/42), Reece Topley (2/46) and Sam Curran (2/46) bagging two scalps each.
Brief scores
England 498/4 in 50 overs (Buttler 162, Malan 125, Salt 122; Seelar 2/83) beat Netherlands 266/10 in 49.4 overs (Edwards 72*, Max O’Dowd 55; Ali 3/57) by 232 runs
