Roy put on a partnership of 221 with Joe Root (91 not out) to guide England to the highest successful run-chase at the MCG.

In a day of records, England’s opener passed Alex Hales’ 171 against Pakistan in 2016 to post the highest-ever score in the format by an Englishman, as well as beating Mark Waugh’s previous best ODI score at the MCG of 173.

Australia would have been happy enough with their batting display as Aaron Finch (107), Marcus Stoinis (60) and Mitchell Marsh (50) got them past 300. Liam Plunkett took three wickets and Adil Rashid two, but both went at seven runs per over, while Moeen Ali bowled economically for his 1-39.

“We left ourselves a few runs short,” said Australia’s captain. “We lost some wickets in the middle overs and it meant we probably couldn’t go hard at the back-end and get the 340-350 that we were after.”

England’s confidence in the 50-over format was highlighted by their captain Morgan, who admitted he was pleased to be chasing 304, even though it amounted to a record total at the MCG.

With their revamped batting line-up, Morgan’s side looked typically comfortable in pursuit of a big total. They will go into the second ODI at Brisbane on Friday full of confidence that they can repeat the trick, with or without another special innings from Roy.

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