But back in front of his Nottinghamshire home crowd, the opener looked a far more confident and authoritative batsman as Robin Smith’s 167 not out against Australia at Edgbaston back in 1993 finally ceased to be England’s highest individual ODI score.
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Buttler hammered six sixes and three fours to get to his half-century and finished on 90 not out off 51 balls while Morgan ended unbeaten on 57. Find out below with our interactive scorecard.
There were also impressive performances in that game for Jos Buttler, Joe Root and Morgan himself as England made the highest ever score in a one-day worldwide.
Chris Woakes believes hitting 500 in 50 overs is not totally out of England’s reach as the team prepares for the fourth ODI with Pakistan.
444 Runs scored by England, the highest ever total in the history of one day internationals breaking a ten years old record 443-9 by Sri Lanka against Netherlands at Amstelveen in 2006. England’s previous record was 15 maximums against South Africa at Bloemfontein in 2016 whereas Pakistan’s previous unwanted record was 14 at the hands of Sri Lanka in Singapore in 1996.
But Amir bludgeoned five fours and four towering sixes in his half century and shared the highest partnership of the innings by contributing 76 runs with Yasir Shah (26 not out).
England have an unassailable 3-0 Royal London Series lead, with the first of two remaining matches at Headingley on Thursday, and are unbeaten in all nine white-ball matches to date this summer.
Morgan’s opposite number Azhar Ali had little to smile about, and conceded Pakistan did not help themselves with a shoddy performance in the field.
“In the key times we missed chances, especially the wicket of Hales on 70”.
Hasan Ali fell to Jordan in the penultimate over but Umar Gul hit the second-last ball of the innings for six as Pakistan closed just short of 250. Woakes nevertheless suggested England had been short of their best in the first two matches against Pakistan – victories by 44 runs (DLS method) and four wickets – and that the 169-run thumping handed out on Tuesday “wasn’t perfect”, at least from a bowling perspective.
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“It was an exceptional innings from Alex Hales and Jos Buttler”, he said.
