England played with no fear: New Zealand skipper McCullum

Edgbaston, June 10 (IANS) New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum applauded batsmen Joe Root and Jos Buttler for their centuries, after England condemned New Zealand to a humiliating 210-run loss in the the first One-Day International (ODI) of a five-match series here.

McCullum added the hosts chanced their arm nicely and played with no fear.

Put in to bat, Butler (129 off 77) and Root (104 off 78) helped England pile up a mammoth 408/9 in 50 overs on Tuesday. In reply, New Zealand bundled up for 198 in just 31.1 overs. Bowlers Steven Finn and Adil Rashid took four wickets each for England.

"I thought they were outstanding and to post 400 in any game is outstanding. Credit to England, they blew us off the park," McCullum was quoted as saying by telegraph.co.uk on Tuesday.

"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," he added.

England's captain Eoin Morgan credited the team saying, "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.”

"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, Morgan added.