Root relieved after England crush Ireland
ENGLAND captain Joe Root watched with a mixture of joy and relief as Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad demolished Ireland for just 38 to seal a three-day victory at Lord’s, but he admitted the pitch was not up to Test standard.
The visitors began the fourth innings of the inaugural meeting between the nations eyeing an upset for the ages – it was Ireland’s third game at this level and England’s 1011th – yet they were mercilessly dispatched by the new-ball pairing. Woakes claimed a career-best haul of six for 17 and Broad took four for 19 as England wrapped up a 143-run win in a whirlwind passage of play comprising less than 16 overs.
Ireland’s was the seventh lowest score of all time and their total of 94 balls at the crease was the joint second fastest completed innings on record.
Root was pleased to emerge without a sizeable blemish against his side heading into next week’s Ashes opener at Edgbaston but, having seen his own team bundled out for 85 on the first morning, he was less than impressed by the surface.
“I don’t like saying this but the wicket was substandard for a Test match,” he said. “I thought it was not even close to a fair contest between bat and ball throughout the whole game. First innings, last innings... when you are getting scores like that it tells a story in itself.”
There is little time to process a remarkable sequence of events with Root heading straight from his postmatch duties into an Ashes selection meeting, with a squad announcement planned for this morning.
“It’s been 10 weeks of hard cricket, of high emotion and of ups and downs. It does take a lot out of you,” Root said. “You have to suck it up and get on with it. It’s not been perfect but we’ve dealt with it pretty well.”
Head coach Trevor Bayliss was less than pleased by how England approached the first two days against Ireland but suggested motivation might have been a factor.
“For matches like this we have to take a good hard look at ourselves,” he said. “We have no problems getting up for games against Australia and India. Do we take the foot off for matches like this? Are we able to get in the mood to compete and be ruthless? The first two days we were embarrassed by how we played but today we were top class.”
Ireland captain William Porterfield was left very disappointed
“We’re pretty gutted,” he said. “It’s a quiet changing room, but that is reflective of the position we put ourselves in throughout the game... we had the chance to win it. But as much as everyone is gutted, I would like everyone, before they leave here, to reflect on what has happened.
“It doesn’t happen every week, the position we got ourselves into. We can take a lot from that.”
It’s been 10 weeks of hard cricket, of high emotion. It does take a lot out of you