UP & AWAY Faf row inspired England victory, insists skipper
proving what a great asset he is and Jofra Archer waiting in the wings to return from injury, the thought of the two of them peppering the Aussies is one to savour.
Stokes said: “They both bring an X-factor to the bowling attack and are both express pace. To have them in the same attack brings the best out of both of them.
“If they are both fit and raring to go when we go out for the Ashes, then that will be very, very exciting to see what would happen in Australia.
“The future is looking bright and all the young lads have put their hands up to contribute to us winning. I don’t think there is a more exciting young batsman in world cricket than Ollie Pope.”
It was not all about youth out here though, as the man-of-theseries gong for Stokes proves after he scored more than 300 runs, took 12 catches and 10 wickets.
He was the first allrounder to achieve that treble since Sir Ian Botham in the 1981 Ashes and who would bet against it being the last?
With the ball, Stuart Broad was the top wicket-taker with 14, offering plenty of support and advice for the rest of the squad as the senior statesman. And Root was also consistent with three fifties to complement the hundreds scored by Sibley, Pope and Stokes.
South Africa might not quite have had the skill and power of old but even their established players such as Faf du Plessis and Quinton de Kock found life hard thanks to England’s level of performance.
And for Root it puts to bed any question marks over his captaincy credentials at just the right time for him to continue building what is his team.
“I’ve said countless times that Rooty’s the man to do it,” added Stokes. “He has won the series 3-1 as captain. It doesn’t happen by accident.”
Indeed. out their hosts for 274, having edged a thriller in Cape Town and won by an innings in Port Elizabeth.
The success has been built on the foundations captain Root called for, big first-innings runs to establish pressure and the ability to take 20 wickets away from home.
The skipper added: “There’s still a huge amount of Test cricket to be played until then [the Ashes]. It does give us confidence and it gives us knowledge on how to perform on wickets that might be similar. We’ve got to keep looking to get better.”
Root said a row between Faf du Plessis, Jos Buttler and Stuart Broad inspired England to victory.
South Africa captain Du Plessis could be banned for the T20 series against England for shoulder-barging Buttler, above. Du Plessis tried to play down the incident, claiming he did not even notice he had touched Buttler since his focus was on a war of words with Broad.
Replays on TV appeared to suggest Broad had called Du Plessis “an idiot”, to which he replied: “Don’t call me that!” after bumping his shoulder with Buttler.
Soon after the incident, Du Plessis was dismissed by Ben Stokes for 35, putting an end to a 92-run partnership with Rassie van der Dussen and opening the door for England.
Root felt the incident, sparked by a Sam Curran throw that hit Du Plessis on the pads, was the turning point.
He said: “There was an exchange in the middle after Sam threw that ball in. And for a 21-year-old to see the senior players get stuck in and have his back was important. We stuck together as a unit and that did change the game.”