REECE TOPLEY garnered an incredible harvest of wickets, finishing with England’s all-time best figures in one-day international cricket.
The 6ft 7ins left armer took 6-24 as England crushed India by 100 runs at Lord’s in the second 50-over match.
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Topley’s historic height pays tribute to the perseverance of a man once so distraught by his seemingly endless injuries that he feared he would never play again.
Having undergone a series of stress fractures and surgeries, he has moved from Essex to Hampshire to Sussex and to Surrey in an effort to find fitness and a permanent home.
Topley, 28, prays his affliction is a thing of the past and now he is Player of the Match in two of his last three caps.
He helped England win the third and final T20 match at Trent Bridge on Sunday 3-22 and he doubled his catch here.
England only made 236 all-out, but Topley removed both openers as England narrowed India to 31-4 and continued to strike en route to an analysis that overtook Paul Collingwood’s 6-31 against Bangladesh in 2005 at Trent Bridge.
This win was certainly welcome for Buttler after England lost the T20 series 2-1 and were humiliated by ten wickets at the Oval on Tuesday.
Buttler said: “Toppers has been fantastic, it was a special day for him. I’m happy for him. He is a very popular member of the team who brings energy to the group.
“He has an interesting story, he came into play with Essex at such a young age and then all the back problems and not knowing if he would play again.
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“It has given him perspective and real pleasure when he is playing. He has all the attributes to be a fantastic international bowler.
“We didn’t hit particularly well, but still came up with a challenging total. We were still positive and knew we needed early wickets to pressure India. We showed a lot of character.”
India’s top order was blown away on a two-speed field that offered an uneven bounce.
Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant and Virat Kohli may be superstars, but they had no answer to the relatively unknown trio of Topley, David Willey and Brydon Carse.
Wickets kept falling and not a single Indian batsman reached 30.
Previously, England collapsed from 41-0 to 102-5, with variations of the sweep often causing their demise.
Jason Roy snapped a catch straight to deep back square and then Jonny Bairstow was bowled sweeping, Joe Root lbw tried the same shot and Ben Stoke’s leg before aiming a reverse sweep.
Wrist spinner Yuzvendra Chahal was good for the first three sweepers and added a fourth wicket when Moeen Ali’s slog sweep settled into the hands of deep mid-wicket.
Willey contributed 41, but Moeen’s 47 was England’s highest score.
It was three years to the day since their memorable 2019 World Cup triumph when they pushed past New Zealand by crossing more boundaries as the match and super past were both equal.
Most batsmen stay, but while not nearly as bad as being routed 48 hours earlier for just 110 hours, England are currently struggling to fire the bat in white-ball cricket.