No ordinary Joe at Old Trafford...
DESPITE being a Yorkie, Joe Root certainly loves Old Trafford.
And despite him being a Yorkie, the Lancashire crowd certainly love Root.
The England captain played a crucial knock on day one of the fourth Test against South Africa at Emirates Old Trafford.
Winning the toss and deciding to bat first despite overhead conditions that would have had home favourite Jimmy Anderson licking his lips, Root and England looked in a bit of bother at 92-3.
And with the ball swinging, that could have been even worse had South Africa not been robbed of Vernon Philander and Chris Morris with back injuries.
But after Keaton Jennings again fell cheaply, Alastair Cook edged spinner Keshav Maharaj behind for a battling 46 and Tom Westley was caught brilliantly by Quinton de Kock for 29, England needed some stability.
Up stepped the skipper. Last year he posted a career-best 254 on this ground against Pakistan, and followed it in the second innings with an unbeaten 71.
In fact, his record at Emirates Old Trafford is far superior to at his Headingley home. There, he averages just 25 in Test cricket, here, it is 118.75 with three half-centuries and that double hundred. Maybe he is playing for the wrong colour rose!
He steadied the ship with a 52-run stand with Dawid Malan (18) and 43 with Ben Stokes.
He survived a close review on 22 and should have gone on 40 when, after he edged the impressive Morne Morkel, De Kock unforgivably didn’t dive and the ball whistled between him and first slip.
The wicketkeeper will be thankful that miss only cost 12 runs as Root’s was soon trapped lbw playing across the line for 52 by Duanne Olivier despite a review. But on his way there he became the third youngest player in history to pass 5,000 Test runs, behind Sachin Tendulkar and Cook. It was also the 10th successive Test innings in which he has reached 50, and the frustration will be he has only converted those into hundreds twice.
Stokes carried on the baton with a stand of 65 with Jonny Bairstow, who finished unbeaten on 33, until the Durham ace was cleaned up by a stunning Kagiso Rabada yorker on 58 as England ended the day on 260-6.
Jennings’ latest failure, meanwhile, could open the door for Lancashire’s Haseeb Hameed, who spent part of the day chatting to Root in the England dressing room, for the forthcoming West Indies series. But he needs some runs first when the Red Rose play Hampshire in the Specsavers County Championship match next week.