Jonny and Jason show to rescue for England
NONE of the players will admit it — at least not in public — but England’s World Cup changed the moment Jason Roy was reunited with Jonny Bairstow at the top of the order.
While Roy was missing the games against Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Australia because of a hamstring injury, England looked diminished.
James Vince, his replacement, made 26, 14 and nought. Deprived of the yin to his yang, Bairstow followed 90 against the Afghans with scores of nought and 27.
It was no coincidence that England lost the last two of those matches, conjuring up the nightmare prospect of missing out on the semi-finals and contributing another painful chapter to their tome of World Cup flops. The obituarists were flexing their fingers.
But Roy recovered, Vince prepared for life as a substitute fielder (and held a vital catch to dismiss Virat Kohli at and Bairstow flourished. In the do-or-die games against India and New Zealand, he made 111 and 106 after England batted first, and shared match-defining partnerships of 160 and 123 with Roy.
Against the Kiwis, their alliance was especially crucial, since the Chester-le-Street pitch slowed dramatically halfway through England’s innings.
After Roy fell for 60, they managed another 182 runs for the loss of seven wickets, before New Zealand were skittled out for 186.
Others have done their bit too, but without the rollicking form of the openers, England would not necessarily be preparing for Thursday’s semi-final against Australia at Edgbaston with a spring in their step.
Throw in their partnership of 128 against Bangladesh at Cardiff earlier in the tournament — when Roy hit a brutal 153 — and the pair have now shared 10 century stands in 31 innings, an absurdly good strike-rate when you consider their aggressive intent.
In fact, there is now an argument that they are the most dangerous opening pair in the history of one-day cricket.
Of the 124 openers who have scored at least 1,000 ODI runs, only Bairstow and Roy have both an average above 40 and a strike-rate above 100.
If one of them doesn’t get you, the other probably will.
‘It is genuinely good fun,’ said Bairstow, who now has nine hundreds in 44 ODI innings (Roy has nine in 79). ‘Communication is important all the way through.
‘In an opening partnership, you’ve got to have trust in each other. I’m sure that (Andrew) Strauss and (Alastair) Cook were the same when they opened in Tests, or (Matthew) Hayden and (Justin) Langer.’
The line-up for the last four was finalised yesterday as Australia suffered their second defeat in the group stage, going down by 10 runs to South Africa.
India’s easy victory over Sri Lanka meant they leapfrogged the Aussies to finish top of the standings and earn a semi-final match-up with New Zealand at Old Trafford on Tuesday.
Faf du Plessis put Australia to the sword as his century set up a testing total of 325 for six, which proved out of reach despite a valiant 122 from David Warner.
Angelo Mathews’ century was in vain for Sri Lanka as India easily reached their target of 265 for the loss of three wickets.
Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul helped themselves to tons.