Slow and steady England not winning the powerplay race

Monitoring Desk

MUMBAI: At their best, England are unstoppable. But they have hardly got started across their first three games of this World Cup: in their defeats to New Zealand and Afghanistan, they started their batting innings in a different gear to their opponents, and never really recovered.

On the tournament’s opening day in Ahmedabad, Jonny Bairstow hit the second ball he faced for six, flicking Trent Boult over square leg for six as he took 12 runs off the game’s opening over. But England managed only 51 for 1 after 10 overs, then leaked runs with the new ball as New Zealand raced to 81 for 1 at the equivalent stage.

And on Sunday evening in Delhi, the contrast was almost as stark. Rahmanullah Gurbaz got Afghanistan off to a fast start, taking down Chris Woakes and Sam Curran as they reached 79 without losing a wicket off the first 10 overs. With the new ball swinging under lights, England made only 52 for 2 in the initial powerplay, losing Bairstow and Joe Root early.

England started well in their other game, a comfortable victory over Bangladesh in Dharamshala, and effectively had the points wrapped by the end of their bowling powerplay. Reece Topley took three wickets in the first 10 overs to leave Bangladesh 57 for 4; Bairstow and Dawid Malan had batted through unscathed, adding 61.

Matthew Mott, their head coach, has diagnosed their starts as a major issue. “We win these games in the first 15 overs with bat and ball, and we haven’t done that well,” he said. “We’ve always been on the back foot, trying to pull things back. What we need to do is dominate those 15 overs, whether we bat first or bowl first in the next game.”

England’s biggest issue is that with the ball, they have been by far the most expensive team in the initial powerplay, leaking 7.23 runs per over. While Mott backed Woakes during his media briefing on Tuesday, they will surely consider bringing David Willey into the side against South Africa on Saturday.

But with the bat, England have tried to strike a balance between positivity and permanence in the first 10 overs. As of Wednesday morning, they ranked fourth out of 10 teams at the World Cup for both scoring rate (5.46 per over) and batting average (54.66) in the initial powerplay.

Their openers, Bairstow and Malan, have similar powerplay records across the first three games: both have scored at a strike rate of around 90 (Malan: 89.61; Bairstow: 92.53) and have been dismissed once in the first 10 overs. But they are yet to get England off to the flying starts that have been a feature of their ODI success.

There has been a change in personnel, with Malan replacing Jason Roy as Bairstow’s opening partner shortly before this tournament. But while Roy and Malan are clearly different in style, their scoring rates in the powerplay when opening have been incredibly similar in this World Cup cycle (Malan: 86.68; Roy: 88.96).

Perhaps surprisingly, Root has struggled badly against the new ball of late. The sample size is small – he has only batted in the powerplay eight times in the last two years – but in that time he has faced 55 balls, scored 26 runs and been dismissed five times. There has been no counterpunch after a false start.

“I don’t see anyone else in the world going and scoring at nine runs an over,” Bairstow said on Wednesday. “You look at India: they don’t go out and just go balls to the wall in the first ten. You look at the way they’ve done it… they don’t just go out and go from ball one. The importance of the first ten is, yes, to score quickly – but also, score in a way that’s sustainable over a long period of time.”

In Bairstow’s view, conditions in India lend themselves to surges at the death. “The teams that have been able to go [harder] for longer at 35 overs through to 50 have built, built, built,” he said, “to get them into a position where your Nos. 5-8 can go ‘boff’ with two men in. That’s how, generally, teams have gone over a period of time in India.”

For many years, India’s top order did prioritise stability: Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli used to bat deep into a 50-over innings before a late launch. But recently, their method has changed. Rohit has come out firing in the last two years; at this World Cup, India have scored at 6.66 runs per over in the first powerplay – and that despite slipping to 5 for 3 against Australia in Chennai.

Across ODI cricket over the last three years, the new balls have swung more than they used to – but England still believe the best way to stop that is by hitting early boundaries, ideally into the LED advertising boards or the stands. “If you get a couple of scuffs on it early doors, that can change it,” Bairstow said.

Bairstow himself was unfortunate to be given out lbw in England’s defeat to Afghanistan, with the DRS showing ‘umpire’s call’ for impact and predicting the ball would have barely clipped leg stump. He would not be drawn on it: “The decision the other day was the decision the other day.”

But Saturday night’s game against South Africa – at a venue with pace, bounce and a small playing area – should be an opportunity for him to get off to a flier. If he does, Bairstow can set the tone for an England batting line-up that needs to rediscover its aggression.