Muristek
1st ODI: England (498-4) beat the Netherlands (266) by 232 runsEngland set ODI record for highest score in huge win
It was as if a popcorn machine had exploded: hot, sweet, buttery kernels flying this way and that to the delight of onlookers, while the desperate owners pressed buttons at random, willing it just to stop. England’s highest ODI total – a world-record score of 498 for four – annihilated a wilting Netherlands attack as Jos Buttler, Phil Salt, Dawid Malan and Liam Livingstone put the God Damn into Amsterdam.
In an innings so stuffed full of superlatives, it was hard to know when best to time a quick scratch of the ankle, let alone shimmy off to buy a drink, England walloped 26 sixes – another record – in a three-and-a-bit hour blitz. Blink and you would miss Salt on the way to his first one-day hundred in an England shirt or Malan build a carefully constructed ton, or Livingstone – who entered the arena like a coiled spring and wound up with England’s fastest one-day 50, off just 17 balls. But most eye-opening of all was Jos Buttler, whose IPL warmup had brought him 45 sixes as well as both the most valuable player and leading run-scorer awards. It was safe to say he had his eye in at Amstelveen.
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