The Analysis: David Willey and the most complete individual performance so far

NICK FRIEND AT LORD'S: The nostalgic among the crowd could only have watched this and reminisced of the glorious Northamptonshire days. Willey, with his uncomplicated backswing. Willey, peppering the legside as if it had caused him personal offence

Granted, he was hitting to the short side. Yes, it was right in his arc. Of course, there have been bigger strikes in this competition.

But as David Willey leant back to hook Blake Cullen over the Tavern Stand and onto St John’s Wood Road, it marked the crowning glory of a knock that could only properly be described as Prime David Willey: 81 not out, 45 balls. And you sense he had plenty more left in the tank.

The nostalgic among those present could only have watched this and reminisced of the glorious Northamptonshire days. Willey, with his enormous wind-up. Willey, with his uncomplicated backswing. Willey, peppering the legside as if it had caused him personal offence.

He has done it before; Hove was among his most famous nights, where he smashed 100 in 41 balls against Sussex. On that occasion, he tore into Michael Yardy, taking 34 off a single over. Here at Lord’s, six summers on, it felt like something similar might take place: Roelof van der Merwe was introduced from the Nursery End, tasked with taming the England allrounder, who was swinging to the more inviting of the two square boundaries. He escaped his set with minimal damage, relatively speaking at least.

Willey is far more than a slugger, though. He picked his bowlers, chose his angles and knew his dimensions. Coming to the crease 27 balls into Northern Superchargers’ innings, he belted the highest individual score of the men’s competition – a knock that included more sixes than any other effort thus far. Against Worcestershire in 2017, he smashed his second T20 hundred; this was his highest score since then in a game afforded T20 status.

Quite frankly, it came from nowhere, given his form leading into Lord’s: six runs in three games, wicketless with the ball. When Mohammad Amir returned at the end of the innings as London Spirit’s overseas banker, he missed his length twice, delivered twin full tosses and was dispatched both times into the Mound Stand.

^{Eoin Morgan's men were well beaten}

Until tonight, Harry Brook, his Yorkshire teammate, has been the star of the show for Darren Lehmann’s men. This wasn’t his evening, even if he hit one of the bigger sixes this ground has seen, smashing Mason Crane – otherwise exceptional with his leg spin – into the pavilion’s top tier.

Crane was a rare bright spark for Shane Warne’s team, who fell woefully short in their reply and, barring a couple of exceptions, had a desperately feeble evening. This was the tournament’s largest defeat so far – and by a stretch. To be honest, they never looked like winning from the moment they lost the toss. They have, unquestionably, been badly hamstrung by the absences of Dan Lawrence and Zak Crawley, while they could count themselves unfortunate to have missed out entirely on Mark Wood’s limited availability.

Willey, on the other hand, was able to make his international experience count. He has no particular axe to grind with Eoin Morgan, who was ultimately handed a brutally difficult decision on the eve of the last World Cup that left the left-armer ultimately as the 16th man in a squad of 15. But it can certainly have done him no harm to light up Lord’s like this, two months out from a T20 World Cup in front of England’s captain.

This was his first T20 appearance at Lord’s, which is hardly surprising when you think about it, given the geographical split of the Vitality Blast groups and Middlesex’s poor record, which has all but ruled out a meeting in the knockout stages.

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With the ball, there is nothing we don’t know about Willey. In a sense, this format is perfectly suited to his skillset; he bowled the first ten balls of Spirit’s reply in an attempt to eke out any swing that might be on offer. In doing so, he accounted for Adam Rossington with his fourth delivery and Josh Inglis with his tenth. All this as captain.

Others contributed as well: Dane Vilas was a useful accomplice for his skipper; Mujeeb Ur Rahman conceded six runs in 20 balls; Adil Rashid picked up Morgan and Joe Denly; the Durham triumvirate of Matty Potts, Brydon Carse and Ben Raine were workmanlike on a slow pitch.

But this was all about David Willey and the most complete individual performance so far.

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