England were pegged back to 2-2 in their ODI series against New Zealand thanks to Ross Taylor's magnificent hundred. The Cricketer crunches the numbers from the game in Dunedin...
Jason Roy passed 2,000 runs for England on Wednesday
England were pegged back to 2-2 in their ODI series against New Zealand thanks to Ross Taylor's magnificent hundred.
The Cricketer crunches the numbers from the game in Dunedin...
When Jason Roy rocked onto the back foot and lobbed Trent Boult over wicketkeeper Tom Latham’s head for a glorious boundary in the eighth over of the match, the Surrey opener moved past the 2,000-run barrier in one-day internationals.
In doing so, he passed Michael Vaughan in the ODI runscoring rankings for England, moving into the top 25.
Of those 25, only one man - Jos Buttler - has scored his runs at a better strike rate than Roy’s 102.6.
Jonny Bairstow has struggled to find his feet away from home, from a batting point of view, during his one-day international career.
His 138 in Dunedin was his best ever score for his country in 50-over matches outside the UK.
While Bairstow averages 46.44 in all ODIs and 69.75 on home soil, he manages just 30 per innings abroad.
Jonny Bairstow hit a century in Dunedin
England’s second-wicket stands have not been all that fruitful against New Zealand in New Zealand down the years, so this was a change of direction.
Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow came together to put on 190, seeing off the previous record of 84, set by Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott in Hamilton in 2013.
It was just the 12th half-century partnership for the second wicket in ODIs by an England pair in New Zealander.
Soon, another record was broken - the all-time second-wicket partnership against the Kiwis in ODIs anywhere in the world, surpassing Graham Gooch and Robin Smith’s 113 in Headingley in 1990.
When the stand was finally ended, at 190, it was England’s record for any wicket in New Zealand and just eight runs shy of the all-time best - home or away (198 by Root and Eoin Morgan in Nottingham in 2015).
Bizarrely, in an innings which for so long belonged to England’s batsman, this was one of the worst for an English middle order in any one-day international.
In fact, the nine runs returned by batsmen occupying the No. 4 through No. 7 slots has only been beaten on one occasion - in Sydney in 1980, when David Gower, Mike Brearley, Derek Randall and Ian Botham managed eight between them.
In the third ODI at Wellington, Colin de Grandhomme returned extraordinarily economical figures of 1-24 in 10 overs - the best by a Kiwi seamer for half-a-decade.
In Dunedin, he conceded 23 from 12 balls.
Funny game, cricket.
Both Martin Guptill and Colin Munro found themselves on the way back to the pavilion without registering a run as New Zealand’s chase got off to the worst possible start.
It was the first time in more than 18 years that both Kiwi openers had been dismissed for ducks in a one-day international innings and only the third such instance ever.
When last it happened, against Australia in Auckland in February 2000, the unfortunate pair were Craig Spearman (c Gilchrist b McGrath) and Nathan Astle (c M Waugh b Lee).
Ross Taylor is now New Zealand’s second-highest runscorer in one-day internationals.
The batsman moved ahead of Nathan Astle during his knock at University Oval.
He finished the day on 7,267 runs, trailing only Stephen Fleming, who leads the way on 8,007.