England seamers back-up blockbuster Buttler as hosts look strong

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  • England fired with the ball in Cardiff.

    Jos Buttler was feted for his performance as England racked up yet another 300-plus score on Tuesday, but all the confetti should be saved for the bowlers.

    For once it was not a case of who leaks the least – the repaired Mark Wood, the redeemed Jake Ball and the recalled Adil Rashid all kept their economy rates below five runs per over. The focus deserves to be on those three.

    Encouragingly England are learning from their mistakes. They were wrong to drop Rashid ahead of their competition opener with Bangladesh but captain Eoin Morgan trusted his man, despite all the noise about Sophia Gardens’ batsmen-friendly boundaries.

    If a spinner is tight and accurate it does not matter whether the boundaries are eight metres away or 80. Rashid produced 28 dot balls, did not concede a maximum, and flummoxed Neil Broom in the middle-order to take a key wicket.

    The seamers also deserve their due – indeed, they were the beneficiary of some dew. In wind-swept Cardiff, England managed to extract variable bounce that rattled Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor as both took shots to the helmet.

    Williamson, the warrior that he is, battled on until the devils in the wicket got the better of him and he gloved to Jos Buttler off a beauty from Wood.

    Wood’s express pace has earned him comparisons with Simon Jones, a 2005 Ashes hero and a Welshman who often let loose for Glamorgan at the same ground. But other, less flattering similarities have been easy to make over the last 18 months.

    Jos Buttler stole the headlines but the bowlers were key for England.

    Jos Buttler stole the headlines but the bowlers were key for England.

    Jones’ England career was cut short by an ankle injury and Wood has already had three operations in an effort to fully repair one of his own.

    The Durham fast bowler has not appeared in a Test since October 2015 but his dismissal of Williamson, in his ninth one-day match for either club or country in just over a month, felt like a line had finally been drawn.

    And what of Ball, toyed with by a mediocre Bangladesh attack and under grave threat for his place from the vastly experienced Steven Finn.

    His back-to-back maidens to start the match were some retort and the chink in England’s armour suddenly looked as if it had been reinforced by titanium.
    There was more life in a slightly greased pitch but the 26-year-old will walk out against the Aussies at Edgbaston with his chest puffed out and rightly so.

    There it is then, three question marks over three bowlers that were all emphatically answered in Wales. There will be a day – probably in this tournament – that at least one of those three will be off-key again but the support cast is there. Added to Liam Plunkett, wicket-taker-in-chief, and a game-breaker in Ben Stokes, and this unit is a nasty one.

    The woes of Jason Roy at the top of the batting order is the only Achilles heel for England left to tackle but Morgan is nothing if not devoted to his squad.

    For now, Roy is being propped up by the shoulders of his team-mates and that is no bad thing. Trust is what has got England this far after all.

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