New Zealand were beaten by England in all the departments in the first ODI of the five-match series on Tuesday. The Kiwis suffered a loss by a huge margin of 210 runs in the first ODI against England. Black Caps skipper Brendon McCullum heaped praise on England's performance in the first ODI.
Earlier, New Zealand skipper McCullum had won the toss and chose to field first, but it was indeed a wrong decision as he misread the pitch completely.
England lost their first wicket in the very first ball of the match, but thereafter Kiwis never really had the grasp on the game. England posted a humongous total of 408 runs by losing nine wickets.
Joe Root and Jos Buttler scored a century each and that powered England to their highest ever ODI total, surpassing their previous best of 391 against Bangladesh in Trent Bridge. England skipper Eoin Morgan's half-century in the middle of the innings and a late blitz from Adil Rashid too helped England to put up that commanding total on the board.
"I thought they were outstanding and to post 400 in any game is outstanding. Credit to England, they blew us off the park. I thought we did well to get back in the game. To get 200 for six after 30-odd overs I thought we might be chasing 250.
"But they chanced their arm nicely, played with no fear and took back to initiative. We could have tried a few more things but overall we need to be better. We knew they would play like that, we just didn't think they'd get 400," McCullum said in an interview to The Telegraph UK.
England captain was happy with the way his side performed in the first ODI. Morgan himself contributed with a quick half-century. He also added 121 runs in tandem with Joe Root in just 15 overs midway through the England's innings.
"It was certainly a different performance to the World Cup. For us to come out of the traps like that is outstanding. I'm as surprised as anybody given we have two or three new faces in the team, but they held themselves brilliantly and the senior players were outstanding," Morgan said.
"The key is consistency for us. It was brilliant from Adil Rashid, he spins the ball both ways and that's a very valuable asset to have in the side. The guys executed really well today," he added.
New Zealand would look to bounce back as soon as possible and they would come all guns blazing in the second ODI.
