England Prove They Have a Formula to Win ODIs—If They Can Execute It Correctly

England finally discovered a way to be competitive in one-day cricket in Leeds on Friday, although the home side’s belated victory over India in the fifth and final ODI came too late to rescue the series for captain Alastair Cook and his men.

Having posted 294 for 7 from their 50 overs after being put in to bat in hazy conditions at Headingley, with the under-pressure skipper getting his team off to a good start by making 46 from 64 balls at the top of the order, England then dismissed the tourists for 253 to win by 41 runs.

So suddenly England’s assertion throughout the five-match series—which India won 3-1 after the opening game was abandoned due to rain—that they had a plan for how to win next year’s World Cup, only the players weren't executing it properly, was not looking so barmy after all.

And that recipe for success in the shorter form of the game is a simple one built around the solid platform that top-order runs invariably provide, with one batsman—in this case man of the match Joe Root—in the first six needing to score a hundred in order to produce a competitive total.

As a result, with almost 300 runs on the board, Cook’s previously staid captaincy began to look more inventive. Meanwhile, the bowlers were also able to relax more, safe in the knowledge that the opposition needed to score at virtually a run a ball right from the first delivery.

However, the problem for coach Peter Moores heading into this dead rubber was that whatever batting combination he went with—and there were yet more tweaks to the line-up on Friday—those top-order tons were proving more elusive to come by than Lord Lucan.

In fact, England have struggled horribly to register one-day centuries ever since both Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen effectively went into international retirement, with neither player having featured in 50-over cricket since this time last year.

Yet when England went to No. 1 in the world under previous coach Andy Flower, it was built mainly around hundreds from the opener Cook and those two South Africa-born batsmen, with that trio having recorded 18 one-day centuries between them.

And while Cook—who has now captained England in more ODIs than anyone else—may have scored five of those, they all came in his first 47 innings up to June 2012, during which time the skipper also managed to make four other scores between 80 and 100.

But in the intervening two years, the left-hander’s highest score is just 78. It is not just Cook whose 50-over form has dipped alarmingly of late, though, with Eoin Morgan having now gone 12 knocks without even making a fifty.

All of which goes a long way towards explaining the team’s woeful recent one-day record under Cook’s leadership, with only Bangladesh of the current Test-playing nations ranked lower than eighth-placed England before their win in Leeds.

Meanwhile, England have also now lost their past five home series in a row and four of their last five overall, while Cook’s record as captain of late reads just five wins from 14 internationals, one of which came against Scotland and one against an India team very much already on the plane back home on Friday.

However, as we saw at Headingley, it only needs one of the top order to go big. And with other useful contributions like we saw from Cook, Jos Buttler (49 from 40 balls) and the recalled Ben Stokes (33 not out from 23 balls), then the nirvana that is 300 is easily attainable whether setting or chasing a target.

And the key to Friday’s long-overdue victory was how the hosts executed their batting plans, in particular Root, whose brilliant 113 from only 108 deliveries—including three sixes, one of which brought up his second one-day ton—made him the first Yorkshireman to score an ODI century on the famous old ground.

In total, England struck seven maximums and 30 fours in their innings, while incredibly in the three comprehensive losses preceding this win, the team had hit just 44 boundary fours and six sixes, showing what can be achieved by some well-timed aggression against the spinners in the middle order.

Now all Cook and his fellow batsmen need to do, in the words of Sky Sports commentator Michael Holding after beating India, is "bottle this one-day formula now they have found one" in both their next two series—in Sri Lanka in November and Australia at the turn of the year—to build up their fragile confidence ahead of the World Cup, which gets underway Down Under in February.

And that means someone in the top order holding his hand up and scoring a century, as it is amazing how much more competitive you are as a one-day team with runs on the board...

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