Jonny Bairstow impresses in England warm-up game
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Your support makes all the difference.Jonny Bairstow's 53-ball hundred for England today had the statisticians scurrying to find out where it stands among the quickest in List A cricket.
But the man himself did not even know he had reached three figures against the Hyderabad CA XI, after hitting the final ball of the innings high over long-on for his eighth six to do so, until his team-mates told him as he returned to the dressing room.
Bairstow's unbeaten 104 followed half-centuries from openers Alastair Cook (85) and Craig Kieswetter (71) and his fourth-wicket partner Jonathan Trott (74) in a mammoth total of 367 for four - and preceded Scott Borthwick's five for 31 and Stuart Meaker's three for 30 as the hosts were bowled out for only 114 in this final warm-up match before the start of a one-day international series against India.
Bairstow faced only two balls of the final over, from Ashish Reddy, as he and Samit Patel tried to build as big a total as possible.
But he was oblivious to the fact that a memorable landmark was in his sights.
"This ground only had a little scoreboard which didn't have individual scores, so I didn't know about it until I walked back into the dressing room," said the 22-year-old Yorkshireman.
"I didn't have a clue, even when I was walking off. But I got told in the dressing-room, and I was delighted to get that milestone.
"I had no idea at all. I was just 'in the zone' - batting every ball as it comes.
"When I got in and found out, I was over the moon."
Bairstow appeared almost equally pleased with England's collective performance, and a second successive victory at the Rajiv Ghandi Stadium.
"It was a fantastic, clinical performance by the boys," he said.
"We're obviously delighted with the way we started the game and posted that total - on a pitch where we perhaps didn't score as many as we should in the first game.
"Maybe the other day, we didn't adapt quite quick enough. But we did this time."
If England were a class apart with the bat, young leg-spinner Borthwick and England debutant seamer Meaker did not waste any time with the ball either - inducing a collapse of nine wickets for 29 runs on the way to a 253-run victory.
"Everyone contributed; Scotty Borthwick with his 'five-for'; Stuart Meaker getting three in the over," he said.
"It's fantastic for those guys coming in.
"Cookie and Kiesy set the platform. Then we went on, Trotty and me, and exploded at the end."
As for his own contribution - a second highly-significant one after his match-winning innings on ODI debut against India in Cardiff last month - Bairstow was disarmingly modest.
"As long as I am keeping on improving in the games and in the nets - and performances like that keep coming - then I'm pleased.
"But on a team level it's more important that we are happy with a performance before the game later this week."
PA
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