Roy restores power with bold century for England
World Cup hero returns to inspire warm-up win Career-best from Knight in vain as women falter
Jason Roy was at the centre of the heart-stopping final moment of the World Cup final and he had a major hand in another England win in the 50-over team’s first match since that gloriously sunny day at Lord’s six months ago.
The supercharged atmosphere of Lord’s felt a world away from Paarl during a power cut. As South Africa experienced nationwide power outages yesterday, Boland Park was without electricity for most of the England innings and Roy did not even know he had reached three figures when polite applause rippled across the ground from supporters who had to ask the scorers about the state of the match.
The England innings had stumbled to 16 for three before Roy gauged the pace of the pitch and started hitting bowlers around the ground. His 104 from 99 balls was enough to propel England to 240, which proved ample once the wrist spinners, Matt Parkinson and Adil Rashid, bowled in tandem, backed up by Tom Curran’s changes of pace. South Africa A were coasting at 91 for one in the 18th over but were all out for 163 to lose by 77, never threatening once they lost opener Jacques Snyman for 65.
“I thought the umpire stitched me up on the hundred,” said Roy. “Everyone started clapping and I could only assume it was for my hundred, so I raised my bat. He said, ‘Are you sure they are not clapping your team’s 150?’ I said, ‘I hope not’ as I would have looked like a bit of a muppet.”
The South African national power company announced nationwide “load shedding” and shut off electricity in selected regions for 2½ hours to save reserves to avoid a national outage. The fact that Boland Park is sponsored by a lightbulb company felt like a cruel irony.
Like his colleagues, Roy was rusty and stiff-legged as he attuned to playing his first game for England since he lost his Test place during the Ashes, having been rested for the tour to New Zealand before Christmas.
“Playing a warm-up game in Paarl when the last game you played was in the World Cup final is quite difficult, but we’ve got to build foundations again going forward for the next few years,” Roy said.
Jonny Bairstow was out lbw for four and Joe Root was out first ball caught down the leg side. When Eoin Morgan was bowled for another duck, England’s return to 50-over cricket was heading for embarrassment.
With Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes rested for the one-day internationals against South Africa, there are spots available in the side. Tom
Banton’s promise means he should be given one of those places, even though he made only three here before he was caught trying to force the ball on the off side.
The final position in the top six is a choice between Dawid Malan and Joe Denly. Malan will play today in the final warm-up game, while Denly failed to take his chance, out for 29 off 41 balls when he chipped a catch to mid on.
Parkinson was accurate once he settled and is a far more accomplished leg-spinner in white-ball cricket, bowling with control against batsmen struggling to attack him on a pitch lacking pace.
Elsewhere, Heather Knight’s career-best 67 proved in vain as England Women were edged out in a close finish to their opening Twenty20 Tri-series match against India in Canberra.
England were made to pay for a poor start as India held their nerve to claim a five-wicket victory with three balls to spare.
Knight’s dogged tally, along with 37 from Tammy Beaumont, rescued England, who had slumped to 59 for four, and helped them to move on to reach 147 for seven.
England’s hopes of an early breakthrough with the ball were denied in controversial circumstances, when an apparent Amy Jones catch off Smriti Mandhana was overruled by the TV official.
India continued to make heavy weather of their chase but a solid 42 from Harmanpreet Kaur kept them focused, before a six from Kaur off Katherine Brunt sealed victory.