England captain Eoin Morgan will receive his 200th cap for England when they compete in the deciding One Day International this evening (GMT).
The series is level at 2-2 after four games and both teams are confident of a win.
England’s form in ODI cricket has improved significantly since the disaster of a World Cup in 2015 where the only won one game and that was against Scotland.
Since then, a new coach, a new captain and a new approach have been drafted in and the results are pretty good.
In their first ODI series after the World Cup, England beat tonight’s opponents New Zealand, who are captained by former Gloucestershire overseas player Kane Williamson, 3-2 and had a great time of it with the bat. They managed to score big runs including scores of 408, 335 and 350.
They lost the next series to Australia 2-3, but there were positive signs that things were improving for England.
Their first away series came against Pakistan in the UAE. They beat Pakistan 3-1 and this is when the bowling side of things came together. They managed to defend low scores and bowl out Pakistan for low scores. This proved to us as fans that their bowling is up to scratch and go the quality to be playing at this level.
The next series was up against South Africa away. It started well for England, winning the opening two matches, but then South Africa came back to win the series with key moments from AB De Villiers and Quinton De Kock.
The 2016 English summer started against Sri Lanka and England dominated the series winning 3-0. However, it all didn’t go their way. The first match was a tight affair and it looked as if England were going to lose especially considering they needed six off the final ball to tie the match. However, England were in luck when Liam Plunkett hit the ball back over the bowlers head for six. Apart from the one that was rained off, England cruised through the remainder of the matches.
England continued their good form in the one day format as they beat Pakistan 4-1. In the third match, England scored the highest ever ODI score with 444/3. Alex Hales scored 177 in this innings, the highest score by an Englishman in One day cricket at the time.
During the English winter, England went to Bangladesh and played three ODIs. England again won the series, but they did lose one match.
After the tour of Bangladesh, England ventured to India and also played three matches. They lost the series 2-1 after India won the first two matches with impressive performances from Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh with the bat.
Later, in March 2017, England travelled to the West Indies to play a three match ODI series. This series was the first time that England had whitewashed the West Indies in an ODI series in their back yard. This is a very impressive stat and shows how far they have come in this format of the game. The stand out performers in this series were Joe Root, Liam Plunkett and Chris Woakes who all made key contributions during the series.
The next ODI series that England played was against Ireland in early May. This resulted in an easy series win for England who beat Ireland by 8 wickets and 85 runs respectively.
The next test would prove to be more difficult than Ireland. In preparation for the Champions Trophy, South Africa were the perfect opposition to go up against. This series proved to be much different to when the two sides met last. This time England won the series, but similarly they won the first two matches.
Next up for England was the Champions Trophy. This is what England were preparing for and were confident that they could win it. England topped their group, beating Australia, New Zealand and Bangladesh. However, England lost to Pakistan in the semi-final, whose bowling performance was exceptional. Pakistan went on to win the trophy.
After the Champions Trophy, England then played the West Indies. Five ODI matches were played and England easily claimed a 4-0 series victory, though one match was abandoned due to weather and the other was cut short and England just pipped the Windies on the Duckworth Lewis method.
After this, it was crunch time. Australia, down under. Time to see how far we have come in the backyard of the World Cup winners.
England impressed many with their 4-1 series victory down under, even without the suspended Ben Stokes, who is considered a key player for England.
In the first match, Jason Roy surpassed Alex Hales’ effort back in 2016 and scored 180, which is now England’s highest score by an Englishman in ODIs.
Now we come to the current series against New Zealand.
It is clear to see the progress in the team going towards the 2019 World Cup in England.
England head coach Trevor Bayliss says that games like this are important especially with a World Cup on the horizon.
He said: “These one-off matches, where it counts, it will be a good test for our guys – heading into that World Cup.”
New Zealand may be without batsman Ross Tyler, who batted injured during the last match on Tuesday. They have called up Mark Chapman as cover for him.
However, Bayliss expects Taylor to be fit to play.
He said to Sky Sports: “If he didn’t happen to play that would be a surprise.”
