England crush Australia with record-breaking display in Trent Bridge ODI

It was the mother of all drubbings. England racked up 481-6, the highest ODI total ever, and Australia never even got halfway there. The margin, the small matter of 242 runs, was England’s largest ever win and Australia’s largest ever defeat by runs. With it, for the second time this year, England took an unassailable 3-0 lead over Australia, and smashed all manner of records – again. And to think, Australia won the toss and invited England to bat. Madness.

Jonny Bairstow and Alex Hales were the architects of it all, with rapid centuries (each of their sixth in ODIs), although among the carnage, Eoin Morgan – by making a 21-ball half-century, England’s fastest in ODIs – provided perhaps the cleanest striking of the lot. Then, just 481 to defend, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid were just too skilful for Australia, and shared seven wickets.

As England raced to 79-0 from the opening powerplay, Bairstow enjoyed some luck. On 27, he was given out lbw sweeping Ashton Agar; even the batsman seemed surprise that Hawkeye revealed his review was worthwhile. Then on 30 he miscued Andrew Tye and was dropped by Marcus Stoinis, sprinting back from mid-off. In the nine balls following the lbw overturn he moved from 27 to 47 and soon enough he had a 39-ball half-century.

Jason Roy followed him to a 41-ball fifty in the next over, the fourteenth. As they brought up their fourth century partnership in 15 innings opening together (they average 61), each hit an outrageous six off Glenn Maxwell. Roy’s was over long-on, off the back-foot, with an illogically straight bat; Bairstow’s was lofted against the spin over wide long-off. Only a run out – as Roy misjudged a second – could separate them. Roy was furious to have made only 82 in a stand of 159.

Fear not, England had 310 by the time the next wicket fell. Hales started with five dot balls but, thanks to some hospitable Australian bowling, was soon peppering his way to a 62-ball century; England’s fifth-fastest in ODIs, and the quickest by 29 balls of Hales’s six in the format. He used his local knowledge to expertly exploit Trent Bridge’s eccentric dimensions. Bairstow, by then, had gone for 139, with his century – his fourth in six innings – arriving in 69 beautifully struck balls.

Jos Buttler never got going but Morgan did and, in the course of his 30-ball 67 overtook Ian Bell (who made 5,416) to become England’s leading ODI runscorer. He and Hales fell in consecutive balls in the 48th over as, believe it or not, England actually left a few runs out there. Still, overall they hit 21 sixes and broke their own record score (444-3 at this ground against Pakistan two years ago) with 27 balls to spare. Hales and Morgan’s stand of 124 in 10 overs took England from 400 to 450 in just 18 balls. It was staggering stuff.

For all England’s excellence, Australia were very accommodating. For all the talk of new eras and better behaviour, they have been less than the sum of their parts. Tim Paine’s decision at the toss was naive, and so were his attempts to protect the short boundary. He rifled through his bowlers (eight were used in the first 24 overs) with no great success. AJ Tye was particularly poor; he may have variations, but they are useless without discipline. He went for 100 in nine overs (five bowlers went for 70 or more) and was one of two to have catches ruled out for

The batting was a little baffling, too. Australia stuck with the listed order in the face of a record chase was witless. Tucked away at No5 was Aaron Finch, the one man England would fear. He has 10 ODI centuries (and was the fastest Australian to that mark) and five of them are against England. His team-mates have eight between them. His demotion sums up the mess Australia are in, and their poor planning.

Still neither Finch, nor Travis Head or Marcus Stoinis – others to make a start – were ever going to haul this total down. Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid ghosted through their overs taking three and four wickets respectively (England have 17 wickets with spin this series, Australia have one, Agar’s dismissal of Bairstow today), while the seamers thudded through their. They fielded waspishly too, as Bairstow’s run out of Stoinis and two excellent Liam Plunkett catches demonstrated.

At the halfway stage, they still needed 304 to win. They lost their sixth and seventh wickets soon after, and soon found themselves 200 behind the DLS par, which really takes some doing. With 13 overs to spare, their heaviest ever runs defeat (which felt an inevitability) followed, completing their humiliation.