Cricket in 2018: 10 best records that England created this year

The year 2018 can be considered as a mixed year for England where they faced some tough losses in the longer format especially in the first half but the results in the ODI format were as good as in the previous years. The Eoin Morgan-led ODI team retained the No.1 ranking with a 4-1 series win in Australia and later whitewashed them at home. England also clinched the 3-match ODI series against India after being 0-1 down.

In the longer format, England started with a 0-4 defeat in the Ashes down under. They ended up losing the Test series in New Zealand and were forced to draw the home Test series against Pakistan. However, they got the better of the Indians by defeating them by 4-1 in the 5-match home series. Later, they clinched a Test series in Sri Lanka after 17 years by whitewashing them in the 3-match series.

Here are the ten best records that England and its players created in 2018:

1. A year for England youngsters:

As many as four players made their Test debut for England in 2018 before turning 21 – Mason Crane, Sam Curran, Dom Bess and Ollie Pope. Only in 1998, England had more than one player aged under 21 making Test debut.

The Leeds Test against Pakistan and the Lord’s Test against India this year are the only two matches in which England fielded with two players aged less than 21.

2. Bairstow’s record:

Jonny Bairstow struck a 106-ball 138 and a 60-ball 104 in the last two ODI matches in the away series in New Zealand. He followed it with 59-ball 105 in the one-off ODI against Scotland. Thus, he became the first England player to score hat-trick centuries in the ODI format.

3. Losing to Scotland:

England became the first No.1 ranked team to lose to an associate nation when they fell six runs short of Scotland’s total of 371/5 in the one-off ODI. The total they conceded was also the highest made by an associate team against a full-member country. This defeat also brought an end to England’s longest winning streak in ODIs while chasing of 11.

4. England better their own record:

England broke the record of the highest ODI total when they faced Australia. About 22 months ago to the game, England rewrote the record by scoring 444/3 against Pakistan at Trent Bridge. At the same venue, England came close to becoming the first team to make 500 in a One-Day match. They finished on 481/6 scoring 37 runs more than the previous highest.

5. Captain Morgan finds the top spot:

Eoin Morgan became the leading run-getter for England in the ODI format when he surpassed Ian Bell’s tally of 5416. Morgan has aggregated a total of 6557 runs in his ODI career with 5813 of those coming for England.

6. The young sensation:

Sam Curran starred in the home Tests for England especially with the bat in the lower-order. His contributions under pressure and his ability to bat with the lower-order helped England to defeat India 4-1 in the home series.

Curran was player of the match in the first Test and was the player of the series as well. He thus became the youngest England cricketer to win a player of the match in Test cricket and the youngest England player with a player of the series/tournament award in International cricket.

7. The record comes home:

With 565 wickets in Test cricket, James Anderson became the leading wicket-taker among pace bowlers in the format. He went past Glenn McGrath’s tally of 563 wickets and also moved to 4th in the leading wicket-takers in the Test history.

8. A streak comes to an end:

Between his maiden Test and last Test, Alastair Cook played 161 Test matches out of the 162 played by England. He missed only one match throughout his Test career for England that too in his debut series in 2006 where he caught up a stomach ache.

Since then, Cook played 159 consecutive Test matches played by England. Thus, he broke the record of playing in most consecutive Test matches for a team held by Allan Border with 153 consecutive appearances.

9. Bad travellers:

Starting from the Test defeat against Bangladesh in 2016, England team went winless in 13 away Test matches up to the 2-match Test series in New Zealand. In these 13 Tests, England lost ten while another three ended in a draw. Thus, they recorded their longest winless streak away from home in Test cricket surpassing the 12-match streak between 1939 and 1948.

10. A debut to remember:

Ben Foakes made his Test debut in Sri Lanka and struck 107 in his maiden innings. Thus, he became only the 5th wicketkeeper and the 2nd England keeper after Matt Prior to score a Test ton on debut. Foakes also affected a dismissal on the 2nd ball as a keeper; the joint fewest deliveries a keeper kept before claiming a dismissal.

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