Lauren Bell's Five-Wicket Haul Seals England's ODI Sweep

Lauren Bell's maiden international five-wicket haul sealed a 3-0 sweep for England in their ODI series against New Zealand. The 23-year-old seamer has been working on remodeling her bowling action, which has led to an ability to swing the ball both ways.

Bell's journey to this breakthrough has been challenging. After returning from England's tour of New Zealand earlier this year, she was tasked with bowling more upright. This change has been tricky to implement while playing on the international stage, but Bell has persevered with the support of her team-mates and coaching staff.

"It's been a tricky few months, so yeah, it was nice to come out of today with some real success, it was a great day," Bell said. "I got back from the series in New Zealand and we just thought to push my career on, make me a better bowler, we'd changed a few things with my action."

"But obviously when you bowl a certain way for however long, it has been tricky. I don't really have a training block, I've just been playing, but it's definitely for the best in the long term and I guess today shows that it is going to push me forward. But yeah, it is obviously hard doing it on an international stage."

Bell's wickets on Wednesday came from a back-of-a-length, top-of-the-stumps approach. However, she believes that her new action will allow her to be more versatile in the future.

"I fell away a lot, and so we thought if we could get me more upright, it'd be safer. It means I can bowl more and it means I should be quicker and from being taller I get more bounce," she explained. "So it came from that point of view initially, to add pace to my bowling, pace and bounce, and leading me to be more upright allowed me to then be able to swing it both ways."

Bell's bowling coach, Matt Mason, has been a key figure in her development. "I think he would've felt like a proud dad today," Bell said. "There's been tears, there's been drama, there's been disagreements. We work really closely and he's put in a lot of time to get me here."

Bell is confident that her new action will help her become a more effective bowler in the long run. "I've gone a long time not really having to think much about how I bowl. Now, my change in action, I very much have to concentrate on it, so I've learned that I need to focus and I've got a couple of cues that help me with that. I reset every ball and I focus in on my cues. It is a bit of a routine that I've picked up in the last couple of months that I think will take me a long way, especially in pressure situations."

Tags: #LaurenBell, #EnglandCricket, #NewZealandCricket, #ODICricket, #BowlingAction