England’s Woakes smokes Ireland.

Root pitches in with wicket woes despite Irish being demolished for 38

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 1,011th.

As it turned out, Ireland were mercilessly dispatched by the new-ball pairing.

Woakes claimed a careerbest haul of six for 17 and Broad took four for 19 at the other end 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 doubtless pleased to emerge without a sizeable blemish against his side heading into next week’s Ashes opener against Australia at Edgbaston.

But having seen his own team bundled out for 85 on the first morning, he was less than impressed by the surface. The England captain said: “I don’t like saying this but the wicket was substandard for a Test match.

“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’s always different challenges to playing in England than anywhere else in the world. It does do a little bit more than most places, but it was extreme in this game.

“From a batting point of view, it’s hard to take too much out of it on a surface like that.”

Just as England had only 10 days between their dramatic World Cup final success and this Irish assignment, they once again have almost no time to process a remarkable sequence of events.

Root was heading straight from his postmatch duties into an Ashes selection meeting, with a squad announcement planned for today.

“Not close to a fair contest between bat and ball”

HIGH FIVES: England’s Chris Woakes is congratulated after taking his fifth wicket at Lord’s yesterday