England vs Australia 2018: Five interesting statistical records from the ODI series

England made a mockery of the visiting Australian side by sweeping the 5-match ODI series by showing their supremacy in the 50-over format. Although the Aussies missed some of their key names from the series, the England side showed who the better side between the two team was by winning first four matches by a fair margin. Australia, the current World Cup holders, initially secured themselves in a winning position in the final ODI to avoid a whitewash before Jos Buttler single-handedly took the game away.

Australia’s 5-0 win in the series:

England won all the five matches in the series to affect whitewash over the World champions Australia. However, the visiting team’s makeshift captain Tim Paine was right with his calls on all five occasions. This meant Australia became the first side to be whitewashed in an ODI series of more than three matches even after winning tosses in the games of the series. There is only one such instance in Test cricket with Australia being on the receiving end. The Aussies won the toss in all games of the 2013 4-match Test series in India only to lose it by 4-0.

A world record for England but falls short of Women’s:

The way England batted against the Aussies at Trent Bridge, everyone was set to witness the first ever 500+ total in ODI cricket. However, with only one boundary coming off the bat in the last four overs, the English side had to settle with 481/6 which still was the highest ODI total. They bettered the previous highest held by themselves with 444/3 against Pakistan at the same venue in 2016. However, England fell short of the all-time highest ODI total of 490/4 recorded by New Zealand Women about 11 days before the game.

First of its kind in England and Australia Internationals:

Eoin Morgan missing out from the 2nd ODI due to an injury saw Jos Buttler taking up the captaincy responsibilities. This meant an International game played between England and Australia had wicket-keepers leading their sides for the first time ever. Both the teams faced off in 504 International games across 141 years before the Cardiff ODI but none of them had keepers of both sides leading in the same game. In fact no such instance was recorded in the games between England and Australia in Women’s cricket. (31 T20Is, 75 ODIs, and 49 Tests)

A low scoring thriller costs world records:

The series began with a lower-scoring game at The Oval before some big totals in the next three matches. This gave a realistic chance for England to rewrite their record for most runs in a 5-match ODI series. They set the World record with 1617 runs during the home series against New Zealand in 2015 where they made four consecutive 300+ totals. England needed 263 runs for the new record and looked possible when Australia began their innings by reaching fifty by 5th over. However, they collapsed to finish on 204 which was chased down by the hosts with one wicket in hand.

This meant England finished with 1563 runs, the 5th most by any team in a 5-match bilateral ODI series. A total of 2835 runs were scored by both the sides in this series which are the 6th most in any 5-match ODI series. 736 runs were needed in the final ODI to break the record for most runs in a 5-match ODI series or at least 577 to make it only the 3rd 5-match ODI series with 3000+ runs. However, only 412 runs were aggregated in the game at the Old Trafford.

Field day for Eoin Morgan:

While England was creating records at the Trent Bridge, their skipper Morgan added a few in his bag after walking out to bat. He became the leading run-getter in England’s ODI history by surpassing Ian Bell’s tally of 5416 runs. Morgan hit 67 off just 30 balls in that game with three fours and six sixes. He brought up his fifty in 21 balls, the fastest in ODI format for England. Previous fastest was off 21 balls by Jos Buttler when they made 444/3 against Pakistan at the same ground two years ago.