England rampaged to a world record 498-4 following Jos Buttler’s breathtaking belligerence as the Netherlands were blown away in the first one-day international.
Not only was the previous ODI best of 481-6, which England amassed against Australia four years ago, eclipsed but this betters the 496-4 Surrey registered against Gloucestershire, which had stood as the List A benchmark since April 2007.
Buttler missed out on breaking his own record for the fastest century by an England batter by just one ball, reaching three figures from 47 deliveries, before finishing unbeaten on 162 off 70 as Matthew Mott’s reign as limited-overs head coach started with a heavily one-sided 232-run win in Amstelveen.
While Buttler took centre stage with 14 of England’s 26 sixes – another record – he was given an ideal platform by Phil Salt’s maiden international ton and Dawid Malan’s first hundred in ODIs in a 222-run union that helped England recover from the early loss of Jason Roy, bowled by his cousin Shane Snater.
Eoin Morgan was out for a golden duck but no impetus was lost courtesy of Buttler and Liam Livingstone, who clubbed the fastest ODI 50 by an Englishman off 17 balls in a cameo 66 not out in 22 deliveries.
It was an error-strewn fielding performance from the Dutch with Salt, Buttler and Livingstone all dropped in the deep before reaching 50, and they collapsed to their heaviest defeat in terms of runs after being skittled for 266 in 49.4 overs on a desperately lifeless surface for bowlers.
The gulf in quality on this showing between England and their semi-professional opponents, an associate nation, was stark, with the Netherlands’ gamble to field first backfiring spectacularly on a day when temperatures approached 30 degrees Celsius.
England were last in ODI action 11 months ago when a shadow squad containing Salt and Malan beat Pakistan, and the pair were thrust together in the second over after Snater snaked one through the gate of his mother’s sister’s son.
But England’s full-throttle modus operandi, whatever the situation, would not be derailed as some clean striking from Salt, replete with crisp drives and authoritative pulls, settled early nerves, allowing Malan time to build his innings, with the left-hander overturning an lbw verdict on 25.
Salt was given a reprieve on 40 when he was spilled at deep point by Snater and the opener, included because Jonny Bairstow is unavailable due to his Test commitments, capitalised with an 82-ball hundred before top-edging to short third for 122.
Any Dutch relief was tempered as Buttler, this year’s Indian Premier League most valuable player and top-scorer, was shuffled up the order to turbo-charge the innings – and he did not disappoint.
There were his customary inventive ramps, but what stood out was his power hitting as he used his whip-fast wrists to drive sweetly through the ball. There were moments of fortune as Vikramjit Singh mistimed his jump, while Buttler was spilled on 37 by Musa Ahmed running in from long-off.
Amid the onslaught Malan reached three figures in understated fashion to join Buttler as the only two English males to make centuries in all three formats. But Malan was content to defer to his partner, contributing 39 to a 184-run stand before holing out for 125 off Netherlands captain Pieter Seelaar.
The slow left-armer accounted for his opposite number Morgan, but Livingstone wasted no time settling in as he took 32 in an over off Philippe Boissevain, whose figures of 10-0-108-0 is the fourth most expensive analysis of all-time.
By this point Buttler had already become England’s third centurion – something they had never done in an ODI innings – after crunching Aryan Dutt for the first of three successive sixes to the delight of a sizeable travelling contingent that made up the majority of supporters at the VRA Cricket Ground.
It was fittingly Buttler who took England to a new ODI record with a slash for six over cow corner and, while the crowd sang “boring, boring England” when the chance to get 500 was snuffed out, Livingstone brought them to their feet once more with a six over deep midwicket from the final ball of the innings.
The Netherlands’ response represented something of an anti-climax even if those in attendance revelled in what they had witnessed for the next few hours.
Max O’Dowd bristled in a run-a-ball 55, with one of his two sixes shattering a press room window, before he had his off-stump knocked back by Reece Topley, part of England’s all left-arm seam attack.
Moeen Ali took 3-57 while Scott Edwards’ defiant 72 not out averted the possibility of the heaviest defeat in ODI history. Nevertheless this was still a chastening day for the Netherlands and they have plenty to ponder ahead of the second and penultimate match at the same venue on Sunday.
