498 for 4: the highest total in one-day cricket
On a small ground in Amstelveen in June 2022, England batted for fifty overs against the Netherlands and finished with more runs than any side had ever scored in a one-day international. Three centuries and a chase that never had a chance.
A warm-up that got out of hand
England travelled to the Netherlands in June 2022 for a three-match series that had been arranged, in part, as preparation for that summer's Test programme against India and South Africa. Eoin Morgan, the captain who had led England to their first World Cup in 2019, picked a squad heavy with the batters who had built that white-ball side: Jason Roy, Jos Buttler, Dawid Malan, Liam Livingstone. The Netherlands, ranked far below England in the one-day game, had beaten Pakistan in 2014 and knew how to cause an upset on their own grounds, but the VRA Ground in Amstelveen is a small ground with short square boundaries, and nobody watching the toss could have predicted what was about to happen.
Pieter Seelaar, the Dutch captain, won the toss and chose to bowl first, a normal decision against a strong batting side on an unfamiliar pitch. By the end of the day it looked like the costliest toss decision in one-day history.
Roy's early exit
England's innings did not begin as a record chase. Jason Roy, opening as he had done through the 2019 World Cup, was bowled by Shane Snater for just 1 from 7 balls, and England were 1 for 1 early in the second over. It was the only real setback the innings would suffer. Phil Salt, in for Roy's opening partner and only in his second season of international cricket, and Dawid Malan came together and began to rebuild, cautiously at first and then with growing freedom as the Dutch bowlers searched for a way back into the game.
Malan and Salt build the base
Salt and Malan both went on to centuries. Salt made 122 from 93 balls with 14 fours and three sixes before he was caught off Logan van Beek, and Malan made 125 from 109 balls with nine fours and three sixes before he was caught off the Dutch captain, Pieter Seelaar. Their second-wicket stand added 222 from just 170 balls, exactly the platform a record total needs: a long partnership that used up overs without losing the initiative, so that the batters who followed could attack from the first ball they faced. Malan then added a further 184 with Jos Buttler for the third wicket, 90 balls that turned a strong total into a total that was starting to look historic. Eoin Morgan, promoted to number five, lasted one ball, lbw to Seelaar for a duck, the very next delivery after Malan finally fell, but by then the total was already well past 400 and the pressure was all on the bowlers.
Buttler and Livingstone take over
What turned a big total into a record was the last twenty overs. Jos Buttler came in at four and finished 162 not out from 70 balls, with seven fours and 14 sixes, and Liam Livingstone joined him at six and made 66 not out from just 22 balls, with six fours and six sixes. Buttler finished on 162 and Livingstone on 66, 228 runs between their two innings without either man being dismissed, and once Livingstone arrived their own unbroken stand added 91 in a hurry as they took the Dutch attack apart to every part of the small ground. Van Beek, the most experienced seamer in the Dutch attack, finished with figures of 10 overs for 82 runs, and Shane Snater, who had removed Roy early in the innings, went for 99 from his ten overs. Philippe Boissevain, playing what was still early in his international career, conceded 108 runs from his ten overs without taking a wicket, the most expensive spell of the innings, a measure of how far the Dutch attack had been pushed by the end.
The record falls
England closed on 498 for 4 from their 50 overs, with 22 extras included in the total, as the scorecard on this page shows in full. It beat the previous highest one-day international total, Australia's 481 for 6 against England at Trent Bridge in 2018, by 17 runs, and it remains the highest total ever scored in a men's one-day international. Buttler's 162 not out and Livingstone's 66 not out were both scored at a strike rate above 200, and Buttler was later named man of the match for an innings that turned a merely huge total into a historic one.
Netherlands reply
Chasing 499 to win was always a theoretical target rather than a real one, but the Netherlands did not fold. Max O'Dowd made 55 and the wicketkeeper Scott Edwards finished unbeaten on 72 from 56 balls, and between them the two gave the small crowd something to watch even as the gap to the target grew unbridgeable. Edwards batted right through to the end of the innings, finishing not out from number six, and his unbroken last-wicket stand of 30 with Philippe Boissevain, the last man dismissed, was the only real resistance in the closing overs. Moeen Ali took 3 for 57 with his off spin, and David Willey, Reece Topley and Sam Curran took two wickets apiece as England used their full attack to bowl the Netherlands out for 266 in the final over, giving England a win by 232 runs. The whole match produced 764 runs between the two innings, another way of describing how one-sided the day had been from the moment Buttler and Livingstone took charge.
Where the record sits now
Records of this kind in one-day cricket tend not to last, and totals in the high 400s have since been chased down or matched in other matches, but as of the CricArcade archive 498 for 4 remains the highest total ever recorded in a men's one-day international, and Buttler's 162 not out remains one of the fastest large scores by an England batter. The full scorecard, over by over, is on this page, and you can see how both sides have fared across their histories on the England and Netherlands team pages. In The Chase you can put a top order together and see how close you can get to a score like it.
Sources
- CricArcade World Cup archive: the full scorecard, fall of wickets and bowling figures on this page
- ESPNcricinfo: England tour of Netherlands 2022, 1st ODI scorecard and report
- Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2023: England's tour of the Netherlands