England Take Series Win
On paper, to only win an ODI series 2-1 against Bangladesh, one of the weaker nations involved in ODI cricket, could be taken as disappointing. And certainly England's failure to chase 239 in the second ODI could be classed as a very poor result. But nevertheless, given the circumstances, to win the series yesterday was a very good result for England. They did so without any of their top four batsmen, with Hales and Morgan left in England, Joe Root rested after a long summer and Jason Roy, who picked up an injury having been anonymous in the first two ODIs anyway.
So let's start with a look at England's ODI batting order, and the first thing to note is that even if everyone didn't cover themselves in glory in this series, England have a lot of batting depth at ODI level. For this decider, Sam Billings, James Vince, Ben Duckett and Jonny Bairstow all featured, on top of the normal batting line up of Roy, Hales, Root, Morgan, Stokes and Buttler.
And over the course of the series it was the experienced heads that shone brightest, with Stokes making 148 runs at 74 and Buttler making 145 at 48.33, Stokes making a century and Buttler making two fifties. But a couple of the young guns also put in impressive performances yesterday. Sam Billings, making his first ODI appearance since June 2015, opened with Vince and scored a valuable 62 alongside Ben Duckett, who notched his second score in the 60s in this three match series, to take England to 127-1 before top edging a sweep to deep square.
But Duckett was able to keep playing alonside Jonny Bairstow, and when those two fell, with the score at 179-4, the experienced and calm head of Stokes took the match away from Bangladesh with 47 off 48 to see England over the line, supported by cameos from Buttler and Woakes. England have strength in batting down the order as well, as they showed even in the losing second ODI where they recovered from 26-4 to make a fist of chasing 239, Buttler the man leading the charge that day.
Overall from a batting perspective, missing three key men for the first two ODIs and four yesterday, England batted pretty well in tough conditions against an attack that played to those conditions well. Buttler and Stokes were excellent down the order, Billings was a class act yesterday and Ben Duckett is certainly the player who made the most impressive audition with two 50s in three innings. However, the other players filling in in this series were less impressive, with Bairstow and Vince both averaging less than 20 and making high scores in the 30s. For Vince especially, off the back of a dismal test summer, this is extremely disappointing and he now needs to go away and have a long think about his England future. For Duckett, it's going to be interesting to see how England move forwards. He's certainly proven himself capable in this series, but is there going to be a space available in England's ODI side any time soon? It seems hard to suggest that there will be.
And with the ball, all the plaudits go to Adil Rashid, who once again on Wednesday was absolutely supreme with the ball, taking figures of 4-43, on top of 4-49 and 2-53, leaving him the series' top wicket taker with ten wickets at an average of 14.5, and an economy of exactly five. Compared to England's other premier spinner, Moeen Ali, who bowled the same overs for two less runs but only one wicket, the almost-fumbled stumping of Shakib Al Hasan in the decider. Rashid was truly excellent, taking advantage of spin friendly conditions to turn the ball all over the place. You could see exactly why he'll be an asset to England, with some brilliant wicket-taking balls, but you could also see why they've been reluctant to play him at test level, as his control and consistency left a little to be desired. But nevertheless, he's had a very impressive series.
Whilst the seamers didn't contribute much, with Ben Stokes the pick of them taking 1-24 off five very tight overs, England's spinners were excellent when it mattered in the decider, making it slightly surprising that Liam Dawson didn't come in when David Willey dropped out of the side, given that neither Willey nor his replacement Plunkett took a single wicket, and the dependable Chris Woakes took just two all series.
One man who did his own ODI chances no harm was young Jake Ball, another man deputizing ahead of the injured Mark Wood and then Plunkett and Chris Jordan. After taking 5-51 in the opener, Ball has had a quiet series, but has nevertheless taken seven wickets at an average of 19.85, which is very impressive.
So moving forward into the test series, and the later ODI series with India it will be interesting to see which players have been able to make an impression on the England selectors. I personally would love to see Ben Duckett again sooner rather than later in an England shirt.
But a word has to be said about Bangladesh, who, in the short form of the game at least, are establishing themselves as a really competitive side on their own turf. They absolutely deserve to be ahead of what is an increasingly pitiful Pakistan ODI team and having watched both of them take on England, Bangladesh were the far better side, and it will be great to see them hopefully making an impact at next year's world cup.
The Hard and Fast Section
- England really are a shambles, Rooney or no Rooney.
- So are Scotland. At least it could be worse.
- Konta has picked up an injury. Body blow.
- Jess Ennis-Hill has retired. Legend.
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