England avenged their defeat to Sri Lanka in the T20 series with a thumping win in the first ODI at Chester-Le-Street, taking just 18 overs to overhaul Sri Lanka’s 106 all out.

It was a win created by England’s new-look bowling attack – not just in terms of the two debutantes, Lauren Filer and Mahika Gaur, but also leg-spinner Sarah Glenn, who has been very-much a T20 specialist in her England career thus far, having played only played a handful of ODIs whilst racking-up 50 T20 caps. All 3 finished up with 3-fers, with Glenn doing so at an economy rate of just 2.5.

Gaur and Filer make an interesting combination because they are such very different propositions for a batter. Apart from the occasional (largely ineffective) short one, Gaur aims to keep the stumps in play every delivery; whereas Filer is looking to bowl shorter and wider, with a little bit more pace to try to hurry the batter into a mistake. Whist the vast majority of Gaur’s deliveries were hitting the stumps; the bulk of Filer’s were missing.

Both proved effective today against a Sri Lankan line-up whose confidence seemed to rapidly drain away once Gaur had dismissed Chamari with a ball the pitched on middle and danced off the seam, away from the left-hander, to hit off. Two overs later, Gaur proved it was no fluke, bowling a very similar ball to Anushka, with pitched on the right-hander’s off stump and dived back through the gate to hit middle. Brought back with Sri Lanka 9 down in the 30th over, Mahika pulled the trick off a third time to wrap-up the innings.

The pattern here of course is that it is one trick; but it is a very good trick that ought to make even the best batters wary. There will be answers – getting forward being the most obvious – but that seriously limits the batter’s options, and it definitely something some will find it difficult to adjust to, having become accustomed to playing late, as you can usually do in the women’s game.

Filer’s tactics are much more overtly aggressive – with that extra pace and lift, she’s looking to bully the batter into making an error, and that worked today against Sri Lanka’s middle order, as it did a couple of times in her only other international appearance prior to today, in the Test against Australia earlier this summer. But she needs to develop more of an armoury, or she is going to get worked-out by the top players, who will just wait of anything slightly off line and then crash it to the fence; and given that her line strays a fair bit, that’s 8-12 an over she’s going to go for. (Even today she was England’s most expensive bowler.)

Mahika will get the headlines – people love an ingénue – but Glenn was really the pick of the bowlers today. It is a big call to play her as the only specialist spinner in Ecclestone’s absence – most would have gone with Charlie Dean, especially as she offers a little bit more of a solid batting option.

(Though I guess Alice Capsey might take issue with that, arguing that she too is a specialist spinner, and it does look like the plan was for Capsey to play as a “proper” all-rounder and bowl 10 overs today.)

Glenn delivered though, bowling with pinpoint accuracy and working her arsenal of top-spinners to deceive the batters on bounce, meaning playing across the line to her is a risky move, especially because she is attacking the stumps, so if you miss… she hits – either stumps or pad.

With the bowlers having done their job to such effect, all England’s batters needed to do was not do anything stupid, and the game would be won in time for an early tea, which is pretty-much the way it went down.

Emma Lamb and Tammy Beaumont played painstaking cricket for the first 5 overs, and I did wonder if somebody had dared them to try to win it in 50 overs; but then in the 6th over, Tamy flipped the switch and we were suddenly hurtling along. Tammy got to 32 before she was dismissed – it looked like she hadn’t noticed the slip that had been put in for the new bowler, sending a catch straight to her. Emma Lamb then actually did do something stupid – trying to play a T20 shot, when there is a reason she has played just one T20 for England!

Heather Knight looked much more in control than she does in T20s these days. Somehow knowing that she doesn’t have to go at a run a ball, and she can actually leave the odd one, allows her to relax and… go at a run a ball! (It makes no sense, but then not a lot does if you stop to think about it!) She might have a trip to the headmaster’s study though, after arguing with Sue Redfern on her way back after being given out caught behind (fairly, as far I could tell from the replays on the big screen) and then running out of time on the review.

It didn’t matter much though – England only needed a handful by that point, and they got them with no further alarms.

So, the order of the universe is restored, at least in terms of ODIs, and England are back on top, with some exciting new bowlers to give us all hope. If they can do the same again twice next week, the T20s will all be forgotten, if they aren’t already. We shall see…