Harry Brook isn’t a fan of looking back at the horrors of the past. Especially not after the sort of brilliance England displayed at Edgbaston. A 238-run victory to kick off a new era under the leadership of their new captain was a refreshing deviation from a past that had not been very kind to them. Two World Cup defenses going awry and four back-to-back ODI series defeats had left the English in largely unfamiliar territory. On Thursday, however, they finally found their way out of it.
Although the visiting side may have been a tad too uncompetitive in the opening ODI, bundling out for just 162 while pursuing a gargantuan 400, England will take the impetus where it comes. Their batting innings ticked along with the sort of purpose England had often lacked in the past. Three out of their top four batters scored a half-century, and Jamie Smith, the batter who didn’t, played a short-lived blitz to take England to 90/1 by the end of the first powerplay.
With the ball, Saqib Mahmood and Jamie Overton grabbed three scalps apiece, with chip-ins from all the remaining bowlers.
And perhaps that’s why, more than the result, it was how it was pulled off that mattered most to England’s young captain, Harry Brook.
“It’s a new era,” Brook said. “Like I’ve said so many times, we’re trying to forget about the past, only focus on what’s ahead of us, and take one game at a time. We’ve done pretty well today so we can take that confidence going forward.
“[It is a] very good start. To get 400 after being put in and bowl them out for 162 was a pretty exceptional start from the boys. Hopefully we can top that.”
From the start, they rarely relented from going hard. The opening stand between Ben Duckett and Smith gave them breathing room through the middle overs, eventually allowing Jacob Bethell and Will Jacks to rip through the final stretch with a 98-run partnership off just 44 balls.
“The boys up top started beautifully and set the template for how we wanted to play and how we want to play for the rest of the series,” he said. “The tempo we batted with throughout the innings was pretty much spot on. We have a lot of depth in our batting, which gave the opportunity to Beth and Jacks to go out there and do what they did.”
ODI cricket gives batters the kind of leverage that takes off the onus of going full throttle from the start. Harry Brook knows that, too. Bethell’s knock, especially, was carved almost exactly for a classic ODI template. He began slowly, going nearly a run-a-ball for the first six overs, but once he found his feet, he was hard to corner.
“I think that’s the way everyone should play in ODI cricket – you’ve got a lot longer than you think. I got out with 20 overs to go and I felt like I was sat watching for about three hours. You can give yourself 10, 15 or 20 balls to get in and then you can soon catch up. I think he (Bethell) was on about 40 from 40 balls (38 off 39) and he ended up striking at 140 or 150. That’s the type of game it is and you can catch up very quickly.”
The contrast on the other side was stark. West Indies’ execution of their plans barely got off the ground. Head coach Daren Sammy wasn’t looking the other way either. Their only resistance against England going berserk came in the form of Jayden Seales’ spell, but even those came at a hefty price, with his final figures reading 4 for 84.
“It’s good when batsmen play out of their skin, but when you know you have a plan and you’ve not really given it a chance to work, that’s the most annoying thing,” Sammy said.
“Our bowlers were not disciplined enough. It’s a wicket that requires you to be straight and use the square boundaries from a straight line. Our skills were not on par in any of the Powerplays. Not to start. We were chasing the game from early – 90 runs in the first 10, you always find yourself on the defensive. We were playing catch-up from then.”
For England, it was just one performance. But it was also the one they had been waiting for. It won’t wipe out their poor run, and Brook isn’t pretending it will. Still, as far as new starts go, this one had everything they had hoped for.
