LONDON, (Reuters) – Opener Alex Hales believes England’s fine performances in the first three one-dayers against New Zealand have brought the smiles back to the faces of their fans even though they trail 2-1 in the series.
England have played an aggressive, exciting brand of cricket, piling up over 300 runs in each game thanks to the dashing strokeplay of Joe Root, Eoin Morgan, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler.
“It has been really enjoyable,” Hales told reporters ahead of the fourth match at Trent Bridge today. It looks like we’ve won our fanbase back in one-day cricket. There are fresh faces and a lot of young talent. Guys are expressing and enjoying themselves in the field.”
England’s young team have gone toe to toe with the Black Caps, who reached this year’s World Cup final, in a pulsating series dominated by the bat.
“We’re pretty inexperienced,” Hales said. “We’ve pretty much matched the Kiwis so far and played some really good cricket so in terms of how inexperienced we are and how raw we are, I think we’ve done pretty well.”
New Zealand coach Mike Hesson admitted England were unrecognisable from the struggling side who failed to get past the World Cup group stage.
“They are a completely different team in so many ways,” he said. “If this side was at the World Cup I think they would certainly scare a few teams in terms of the way they play.”
England’s gung-ho approach cost them in the last game in Southampton when they lost their last five wickets cheaply and failed to bat out the full 50 overs.
“They haven’t quite nailed it yet but you are never going to straight away,” Hesson said.
“But on their day, crikey, they are dangerous. England are playing a brand of cricket that puts you under the pump unless you are really on-song.”
