How 400 has become the cricket norm

England passed the 400 mark for the first time in the opening ODI against New Zealand. Photo / AP

In March 2006, two extraordinary outlier innings hinted at the future of one-day internationals when Australia played South Africa in Johannesburg.

The visitors walloped 434 for four. Naturally, the hosts were somewhat dejected at the change of innings, prompting Jacques Kallis to inject a spot of dressing room wit.
"C'mon guys, I reckon this is a 450 pitch, they've fallen 15 runs short."

South Africa reached the target with a ball to spare, setting the benchmark for modern day limited overs cricket.

Kallis was jesting, but he could just as easily have been gazing into a crystal ball.
Scores in excess of 400 are merging with the mainstream.

There have since been 14 more examples. Six have come in the last eight months as batsmen take advantage of bigger bats, shorter boundaries, stable pitches, powerplay restricted fields and a cache of Twenty20 knowledge. On Tuesday, England entered the list as they embark on an aggressive post-World Cup era.

Originally it tended to be the preserve of an established nation bullying fledgling opposition. Bermuda, Ireland and the Netherlands featured among the early recipients of such lashings.

New Zealand entered the list this week. India, Sri Lanka and the West Indies are there as well.

Twenty20 appears to have been a significant influence as a fearless generation of batsmen emerges. The likes of South Africa's AB de Villiers, Sri Lanka's Tillakaratne Dilshan and India Virender Sehwag stand out among the run-makers in the list of 16.

Jos Buttler, arguably England's most revolutionary limited overs batsman, looms as another pioneer after his 129 off 77 balls at Birmingham. He has the two fastest England ODI centuries.

New Zealand pace bowler Trent Boult compared him to de Villiers after the opening match.

"I'm not sure I'm quite at that level," Buttler said. "AB is someone who has been a role model for a long period, someone who has changed batting over the past few years and everyone tries to emulate him. That's the role I want to play in English cricket, I want to be that guy who can play that kind of innings consistently."

Buttler acknowledged sometimes that will mean failure.

"I hit a couple through the slips and, if those chances had been taken, we could have been out for 250. If you scrape that up in 50 overs it's not going to win you too many games any more. You have to be looking at 300-plus. New Zealand were bowled out in 30-odd overs but they had to keep going. There's no point knocking the ball around and taking 280."

With swing seldom wreaking havoc with the batting equation, New Zealand coach Mike Hesson suggested bowlers have less room to err, as occurred at Birmingham.

"We bowled too many balls down Main St where you can hit both sides of the wicket.

"There's a very small margin for error with Jos. When you do miss, he's got the ability to punish you. You need to recognise that and applaud it."

Hesson expected scores of 400 to become less of an anomaly.

"I like the way it's going because there are high scores and also a lot of low scores. There's a balance between risk and reward. Previously scores between 200 and 250 made it pretty mundane. Now you've got extremes which is exciting and brings a whole different element to the game."

Teams scoring more than 400 in ODIs over the past year
439-2 South Africa v West Indies, Johannesburg, January 18
417-6 Australia v Afghanistan, Perth, March 4
411-4 South Africa v Ireland, Canberra, March 3
408-5 South Africa v West Indies, Sydney, February 27
408-9 England v New Zealand, Birmingham, June 9
404-5 India v Sri Lanka, Kolkata, November 13