JOE A REAL TOUGH NUT
Injured Root wins it on one leg
JOE ROOT took one for team before guiding England to a four-wicket win over Pakistan and a 2-0 lead in the ODI series – on one leg.
Root made 89 as England chased down Pakistan’s 251 all out with 15 balls to spare, despite limping through his innings and twice needing treatment.
The Yorkshireman damaged his right ankle in a sickening collision with Adil Rashid as they went for a chance in the deep off Pakistan’s Hassan Ali.
Root took the catch and the knock – but it could have been much worse.
He said: “We were very lucky. We were not far away from Adil headbutting my knee.
“I could see him out of the corner of my eye and I put my arms out to say it was my catch and shouted but he can’t have heard it. He hit me pretty hard – I was surprised that such a little guy could make such a strong tackle – but there are no serious injuries.”
Prime Minister Theresa May was in the Lord’s crowd but Root was in charge at HQ as England eased to the win even though he was crocked.
Root’s innings contained 53 singles and after a brief flurry of early boundaries he disciplined himself to chip away at Pakistan and let the supporting cast play big shots around him.
Shocker
Ben Stokes smashed 42 and Eoin Morgan hit his first ODI half-century since last winter in Abu Dhabi as he passed Root, his batting partner, before being bowled cutting Imad Wasim for 68.
England’s chase got off to a shocker though.
Jason Roy, a thumping hero last Wednesday at Southampton, was bowled second ball by Mohammad Amir.
And Alex Hales was back in the hutch for 14 when he was castled having a heave at Wasim. That leaves Hales with just one 50 in 10 knocks against Pakistan this summer.
But the bowlers had broken the back of the match in the first half of the day, teeing up the contest for Root and company to steer England home.
That makes it 10 out of 11 wins in one-dayers against Pakistan.
Skipper Morgan said: “It was a pretty clinical performance. The bowlers put in a great effort up front when they got the ball talking. We have got a lot of pace in the attack and a lot of control.”
England knocked over Pakistan for 251, in the last over, with Chris Woakes and Mark Wood taking three wickets and Liam Plunkett claiming two. Plunkett also pulled off a candidate for catch of the season when he dived full length to cling onto a drive from Wahab Riaz.
For the second match on the spin, Pakistan looked like they were short of runs but theirs was a decent effort. Wood and Woakes had them 2 for 3 in 20 minutes of mayhem with the ball zipping around.
Slog
Wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed made a gutsy 105 to bail the visitors out and became the first Pakistani player to make an ODI hundred at Lord’s.
He was out just before the slog was on at the end of the innings but 63 not out from Wasim, who had a run-in with Plunkett after hitting him for six over point, got them past 250.
Umpire Marais Erasmus told the pair to button it – but Plunkett, who appeared to start the verbals, had the last laugh with the result.