England head coach Trevor Bayliss feels hard work over four years paid off with World Cup win
Trevor Bayliss feels England's methods during his tenure as head coach over the last four years have been vindicated by them winning the World Cup for the first time in their history.
England ended 44 years of hurt at Lord's in the most dramatic of circumstances, defeating New Zealand in the final by virtue of registering more boundaries as the teams finished level in both the match and then after a super over.
While heartbreaking for the Kiwis, England capped off their one-day international transformation under the axis of Bayliss and captain Eoin Morgan by hoisting aloft their first global 50-over trophy.
A mantra of aggressive cricket has been at the heart of their resurgence, leading them to the top of the ODI rankings, though there have been some setbacks along the way, including some startling batting collapses.
But reflecting on England's triumph at a celebration event at The Oval on Monday, Bayliss said: "It's terribly exciting and it's justification for the way we went about it over the last four years.
"At different times we copped a little bit of criticism because of the way we went about it but we had an end goal in mind and this is the result. We've stuck to our plans and the way we wanted to play.
"It's justification for a lot of hard work by a lot of people, not just the 11 guys out there in the field but everyone else that's played for us in the last four years and also the backroom staff, it's been a fantastic effort.
"To see the joy on the boys' faces after the game, and the way they celebrated in the dressing room, was all worth it."
Bayliss joined the England camp a few months on from a dismal 2015 World Cup, in which they were eliminated in humiliating fashion at the group stage.
The Australian, hired largely because of his expertise and experience in the limited-overs formats, admitted he was initially uncertain about England's prospects of glory when he first agreed to head up the coaching team.
However, the talent England had at their disposal meant he was quickly won over.
He said: "(I thought) I'll give it a go but I wasn't sure. I knew they desperately wanted to do better than they had been doing and that no stone was going to be left unturned to try and get that World Cup.
"The main plan was to actually let them go out and test the ceiling of how good they could be.
"We knew they were going to stuff up, we knew they would lose games and lose some games badly but you only get better from making mistakes and seeing how well you can play.
"And then learn from those mistakes and with a period of four years to get it right, the talent in the team was obvious very early on."
Bayliss highlighted Morgan's leadership as a major factor in their limited-overs metamorphosis, adding: "He's the one that's really driven this going forward. The rest of the boys try to run through a brick wall for him."
Bayliss was reticent to discuss Morgan's future but believes the 32-year-old remains worthy of his place in the side, pointing out it would be too early for the Dubliner to take a coaching role.
He said: "He's still good enough to be in this team for a while longer yet. There's a T20 World Cup coming up in 12 months which I'm sure he'll be more than up for."
Bayliss is set to stand down from his position at the end of the summer. While England are revelling in their success, attention will turn to the Ashes following a one-off Test against Ireland at Lord's later this month.
He said: "There's still six very important matches to go in this summer, so we won't be taking our foot off the pedal.
"I've not even thought about the Ashes at the moment, so there's still some planning to do."
How both teams reached the final
GROUP STAGE STANDINGS
Played | Won | Lost | No Result | Tied | Net Run Rate | Points
- India P 9 W 7 L 1 N/R 1 T 0 NRR +0.809 Pts 15
- Australia P 9 W 7 L 2 N/R 0 T 0 NRR +0.868 Pts 14
- England P 9 W 6 L 3 N/R 0 T 0 NRR +1.152 Pts 12
- New Zealand P 9 W 5 L 3 N/R 1 T 0 NRR +0.175 Pts 11
- Pakistan P 9 W 5 L 3 N/R 1 T 0 NRR -0.430 Pts 11
- Sri Lanka P 9 W 3 L 4 N/R 2 T 0 NRR -0.919 Pts 8
- South Africa P 9 W 3 L 5 N/R 1 T 0 NRR -0.030 Pts 7
- Bangladesh P 9 W 3 L 5 N/R 1 T 0 NRR -0.410 Pts 7
- West Indies P 9 W 2 L 6 N/R 1 T 0 NRR -0.225 Pts 5
- Afghanistan P 9 W 0 L 9 N/R 0 T 0 NRR -1.322 Pts 0
England's matches
(Click on the result for the report)
May 30 - England v South Africa, the Oval - England win by 104 runs
June 3 - England v Pakistan, Trent Bridge - Pakistan win by 14 runs
June 8 - England v Bangladesh, Cardiff - England win by 106 runs
June 14 - England v West Indies, Rose Bowl - England win by eight wickets
June 18 - England v Afghanistan, Old Trafford - England beat Afghanistan by 150 runs
June 21 - England v Sri Lanka, Headingley - Sri Lanka win by 20 runs
June 25 - England v Australia, Lord's - Australia win by 64 runs
June 30 - England v India, Edgbaston - England win by 31 runs
July 3 - England v New Zealand - England win by 119 runs
Knockout stage
July 11 - Australia v England, Edgbaston - England beat Australia by eight wickets
New Zealand's matches
(Click on the result for the report)
June 1 - New Zealand v Sri Lanka, Cardiff - New Zealand win by 10 wickets
June 5 - Bangladesh v New Zealand, the Oval - New Zealand win by two wickets
June 8 - Afghanistan v New Zealand, Taunton - New Zealand win by seven wickets
June 13 - India v New Zealand, Trent Bridge - Match abandoned
June 19 - New Zealand v South Africa, Edgbaston - New Zealand won by four wickets
June 22 - New Zealand v West Indies, Old Trafford - New Zealand won by 5 runs
June 26 - New Zealand v Pakistan, Edgbaston - Pakistan win by six wickets
June 29 - Australia v New Zealand, Lord's - Australia win by 86 runs
July 3 - England v New Zealand - England win by 119 runs
Knockout stage
July 9 - India v New Zealand, Old Trafford - New Zealand win by 18 runs
England's other great cricket moments this century
2005 Ashes
Thousands took to the streets for an open-top bus parade as the players, who were by their own admission slightly worse for wear, had an audience with then Prime Minister Tony Blair to celebrate a truly momentous achievement. Australia were at their peak of their powers, a number of all-time greats in their squad, but in one seminal summer England matched them. A breathtaking see-saw series saw Michael Vaughan's side prevail 2-1 as they regained the urn to end 18 years of misery against their oldest rivals. The contest and the aftermath are viewed as halcyon days for English cricket and for good reason - an estimated eight million viewers are said to have watched the climax at The Oval on Channel 4, numbers that have not been seen since.
2010 World Twenty20
Rejoice, for Paul Collingwood is no longer the only England captain to hoist aloft a global trophy. This was the one occasion where tinkering with the line-up before a tournament actually bore fruit. Michael Lumb and Craig Kieswetter elbowed their way in as openers and were able to regularly lay a platform in the Caribbean. Kevin Pietersen was player of the tournament, consistently delivering either side of a trip home for the birth of his son, while Ryan Sidebottom's left-arm seam was a point of difference for England, who used slower-ball bouncers to great effect. They needed a bit of luck, edging out Ireland in the first group stage on net run-rate alone, but gradually built a head of steam, culminating in a seven-wicket thrashing of Australia in the Barbados final.
2010/11 Ashes
Waking up to news of England's meek surrender Down Under is a right of passage for any cricket fan from these isles. Australia is often regarded as the final frontier for England but Andrew Strauss' side came, saw and conquered in a winter beset by snow back home. England fans, though, were kept warm by a sequence of scarcely believable numbers - 766, 517 for one, and 98 all out among them. If you know, you know. A 3-1 series victory barely reflected England's dominance, Australia were spared complete embarrassment by a reversal of fortunes in Perth which quickly ended once they got to Melbourne. The scenes of the side performing the 'Sprinkler' in unison at a near empty Sydney Cricket Ground live long in the memory.
Topping the Test rankings
From the wreckage of Jamaica 2009, woefully bowled out for 51, came the determination to become the best Test side in the world. Under the shrewd leadership axis of coach Andy Flower and captain Strauss, they realised their aim by whitewashing India 4-0 four years later, leapfrogging the Asian giants to get their hands on the Test mace. A settled top five - Strauss, Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Pietersen and Ian Bell - compiled the 'daddy hundreds' while James Anderson and Stuart Broad perfected bowling dry. Graeme Swann, meanwhile, was perhaps the best spinner in the world during this period. England were removed from their perch by South Africa the following year as bonhomie gave way to ill-feeling within the camp.
Beating India in India
The dust had barely settled on Pietersen's 'reintegration', coming back into the line-up for England's first Test series under the stewardship of Cook. They made an inauspicious start in Ahmedabad, the saving grace in a nine-wicket defeat their new leader's mammoth 176, showing the rest of England's order how to bat. Cook would finish a remarkable 2-1 series victory with 562 runs but was overshadowed in Mumbai, where Pietersen's 186 is often held up as the finest innings by a foreigner in India. Swann and Monty Panesar contributed 37 wickets between them while Anderson's back-breaking contributions were held up as the difference between the sides by no lesser an authority than India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
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