Having witnessed Surrey’s extraordinary world record of 496 for four at the Brit Oval on Sunday, one couldn’t help but compare Alistair Brown’s 176-run blitz at the top of the Surrey order to England’s faltering starts in the World Cup.

While all four of the World Cup semi-finalists looked to take the attack to the bowlers in the powerplays, England seemed stuck in a time warp, looking to build a solid platform and keep wickets in hand. It was a plan that backfired and Michael Vaughan, the England captain, admitted that “the strategy was wrong” in his post mortem.

It was clear we needed a more positive approach and more aggressive personnel at the top of the order. With Marcus Trescothick’s well-documented problems robbing us of our most consistently successful ball-striker, the decision not to take Mal Loye was criminal.

Perhaps an even bigger crime, though, was the treatment of the likes of Brown in a previous era. Recognised as the most destructive opener in domestic one-day cricket, he was picked first against India in 1996, months after Sri Lanka’s dynamic batting had taken the World Cup by storm on the sub-continent.

A frenetic thirty on debut was followed by a man-of-the-match 118 in the third one-day international at Old Trafford but he was dropped regardless. Despite being picked for several one-day tournaments at different intervals he failed to hold down a regular place and was dropped by Duncan Fletcher, after two games in 2001, for the last time.

Brown remains philosophical about his time with England. “I had 16 chances and I didn’t score my runs,” he said. “But getting a hundred and getting left out, I never really felt backed. I put too much pressure on myself to go out and score quicker than Athers (Michael Atherton) when I first played. With hindsight I’d just bat.”

Brown accepts that his England career has passed him by but with one-day scores of 268 – a world record in a one-day game - 203 and 176 as well as 16 other limited-overs hundreds spanning 17 years, he is well placed to cast judgment over the national side and evaluate England’s up-and-coming players.

“It’s obvious we need to be more attacking up front,” he said. “Maybe Flintoff at the top of the order could give us much needed momentum. I hope under Peter Moores they go with a positive opener.

“I like the look of Owais Shah and Rob Key. They’ve got the necessary ability and look like they could handle themselves at international level.

“There are players like James Benning, my opening partner at Surrey, and Mark Pettini at Essex, who are exciting at the top of the order but it’s important not to rush them. Scoring runs against international attacks is a different kettle of fish and they need to keep working.

“Peter Moores needs to identify the players he wants and he needs to stick with them. I think Fletcher did that with Paul Collingwood. I was surprised to see his length of stay in the England team but he has grown and adapted his game and repaid the faith shown.”

The power of the mind

Alistair Brown gave an interesting insight into the mindset of a top one-day batsman and admitted that his experience has been fundamental to scoring heavily.

“In my early twenties, I’d be playing really well then get bored and try something too extravagant,” he said. “Now I know how to build big scores and how to assess risks. I stay in my bubble of concentration and just play but I always stay positive and always try to do what the bowler least expects.”

His three biggest scores of 268, 203 and the 176 on Sunday have all started with a tough period in the first few overs, which he believes is far from coincidental.

“If I look to hit the ball from ball one I can hole out. Bat and assess is definitely the way to go. In all three of those knocks, I had to knuckle down because the ball was swinging about. I just looked to bat and then I opened up a bit and got some momentum.”

Communication is key

A feature of Surrey’s record opening partnership of 294 between Alistair Brown and James Benning against Gloucester Gladiators on Sunday was their communication.

The normally explosive Benning showed great maturity by allowing his senior partner to have most of the strike, while he found his touch. Brown brought his hundred up in the fifteenth over, with Benning trailing on 32.

“I was pleased with the way he handled it,” said Brown. “I thought he’d have a swipe but he didn’t. I said to him, “Can you hear their silence? If one of us gets out now they’ll go up a notch.”

Alert to the fact that Brown was running hot, having just taken 20 runs off Ian Fisher’s first over, Benning called his partner through for a quick single off the first ball of the next over. Brown smashed Mark Hardinges for a further 22 runs.