jeo root new england captian one of the classic player in recent era-sports updates
- 7 years ago
England’s faith in Alex Hales produced an immediate return as the opener’s fifth one-day hundred, a ninth from Joe Root and a merciless bowling display powered them to a dominant 186-run win over West Indies and a first-ever series clean sweep in the Caribbean.
Fit again following the broken hand that has largely scuppered his winter and restored to the side at the first opportunity in place of Sam Billings, Hales plundered 110 from 107 balls that, with Root’s 101 from 108, took Eoin Morgan’s side to 328 all out from 50 overs after being asked to bat at a Kensington Oval bathed in glorious sunshine.
If that felt a mildly disappointing total for a power-packed team that had reached 219 for one by the 37th over, then it was always likely to be too great for an experience-light West Indies side without a successful run chase over 300 behind them. And sure enough their resistance proved minimal, as they were bowled out for 142 in 39.2 overs for a 3-0 series scoreline while the travelling supporters danced away in the party stand. “We came here to win three games and have done that,” said Morgan. “The main challenge from this trip was adapting to conditions. We feel we can score 300 on most surfaces.”
On Hales, named man of the match in only his third international in six months, the England captain added: “Anybody coming back into the team is going to be hungry but it’s rare to produce a match-winning performance in your first game back.”
Amid the second-innings collapse from the hosts, in which at one stage they were 87 for eight, came a moment of mild catharsis for Ben Stokes, trapping Carlos Brathwaite lbw with his first ball to the giant Bajan since his six-hitting assault in the World Twenty20 final last year.
This intervention was but a mere cameo, however, with the plaudits among the England attack belonging chiefly to Chris Woakes and Liam Plunkett and their three wickets apiece. The latter, who gutted the middle order in a spell of three for five in five overs, also finished up as the leading wicket-taker in the series with 10 victims.
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England’s first-innings total after losing the toss for the third time had relied heavily on a stand of 192 between Hales and Root, with the former, who lost Jason Roy for 17 duffing a drive to mid-off, making a considerable statement at the end of a frustrating winter. His knock was one of steady accumulation pockmarked by aggressive bursts such that he still scored at over a run a ball before he was caught attempting to thrash a sixth six.
No England batsman before Hales has reached five one-day centuries more quickly than his 39 innings and while it was chancy in parts – not least the top-edged six that brought up the milestone from 99 balls and prompted a fist-pumping roar from the 28-year-old – it also featured his trademark long-levered swats through leg. Root’s century, his 20th in all international cricket and first since becoming England Test captain, followed a run of eight unconverted 50s in one-day internationals and also profited from two reprieves early in the piece, with Evin Lewis putting down a straightforward take at mid-wicket on one and Ashley Nurse a trickier diving effort at wide slip on 12.
Things scarcely got better for Lewis either, with the opener slipping on concrete in a worrying fall beyond the boundary rope when preventing a four. He then spent the rest of the first innings undergoing an x-ray on his left wrist before eventually returning, all clear, to register a third-ball duck in the home side’s reply.
From a scratchy start, and one in which England posted only 39 for one from their first 10 overs, Root began to find greater fluency as he and Hales made up for lost time. The latter targeted Devendra Bishoo in particular, hoisting the leg-spinner for 22 runs in six balls and forcing West Indies’ captain, Jason Holder, to turn to his part-timers.
One of them, Kraigg Brathwaite, had Hales given out lbw on 93 from around the wicket, only for the review to show it missing. Once the pair were separated, the innings dwindled through a steady procession of wickets. Alzarri Joseph, the slippery young quick in for Shannon Gabriel, picked up four for 76 and only Ben Stokes, 34 from 20 balls, managed truly to cut loose. Plunkett was the last man to fall when run out off the final ball of the innings but not before crashing England’s 10th six.
In keeping with their two defeats in Antigua, West Indies saw their innings derailed from the outset. Finn persuaded Kieran Powell to plop his third ball to Hales at square-leg, and his new-ball partner Woakes followed it up with the removal of Lewis and Kraigg Brathwaite in successive overs and equally tame fashion.
Plunkett, in clattering the stumps of Jason Mohammed for 10 and removing Shai Hope and Holder in successive deliveries, made it a case of when and by how many. And only some late-order slogs from Joseph, with 22 from 13 balls, pulled the margin of defeat under 200.
Fit again following the broken hand that has largely scuppered his winter and restored to the side at the first opportunity in place of Sam Billings, Hales plundered 110 from 107 balls that, with Root’s 101 from 108, took Eoin Morgan’s side to 328 all out from 50 overs after being asked to bat at a Kensington Oval bathed in glorious sunshine.
If that felt a mildly disappointing total for a power-packed team that had reached 219 for one by the 37th over, then it was always likely to be too great for an experience-light West Indies side without a successful run chase over 300 behind them. And sure enough their resistance proved minimal, as they were bowled out for 142 in 39.2 overs for a 3-0 series scoreline while the travelling supporters danced away in the party stand. “We came here to win three games and have done that,” said Morgan. “The main challenge from this trip was adapting to conditions. We feel we can score 300 on most surfaces.”
On Hales, named man of the match in only his third international in six months, the England captain added: “Anybody coming back into the team is going to be hungry but it’s rare to produce a match-winning performance in your first game back.”
Amid the second-innings collapse from the hosts, in which at one stage they were 87 for eight, came a moment of mild catharsis for Ben Stokes, trapping Carlos Brathwaite lbw with his first ball to the giant Bajan since his six-hitting assault in the World Twenty20 final last year.
This intervention was but a mere cameo, however, with the plaudits among the England attack belonging chiefly to Chris Woakes and Liam Plunkett and their three wickets apiece. The latter, who gutted the middle order in a spell of three for five in five overs, also finished up as the leading wicket-taker in the series with 10 victims.
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England’s first-innings total after losing the toss for the third time had relied heavily on a stand of 192 between Hales and Root, with the former, who lost Jason Roy for 17 duffing a drive to mid-off, making a considerable statement at the end of a frustrating winter. His knock was one of steady accumulation pockmarked by aggressive bursts such that he still scored at over a run a ball before he was caught attempting to thrash a sixth six.
No England batsman before Hales has reached five one-day centuries more quickly than his 39 innings and while it was chancy in parts – not least the top-edged six that brought up the milestone from 99 balls and prompted a fist-pumping roar from the 28-year-old – it also featured his trademark long-levered swats through leg. Root’s century, his 20th in all international cricket and first since becoming England Test captain, followed a run of eight unconverted 50s in one-day internationals and also profited from two reprieves early in the piece, with Evin Lewis putting down a straightforward take at mid-wicket on one and Ashley Nurse a trickier diving effort at wide slip on 12.
Things scarcely got better for Lewis either, with the opener slipping on concrete in a worrying fall beyond the boundary rope when preventing a four. He then spent the rest of the first innings undergoing an x-ray on his left wrist before eventually returning, all clear, to register a third-ball duck in the home side’s reply.
From a scratchy start, and one in which England posted only 39 for one from their first 10 overs, Root began to find greater fluency as he and Hales made up for lost time. The latter targeted Devendra Bishoo in particular, hoisting the leg-spinner for 22 runs in six balls and forcing West Indies’ captain, Jason Holder, to turn to his part-timers.
One of them, Kraigg Brathwaite, had Hales given out lbw on 93 from around the wicket, only for the review to show it missing. Once the pair were separated, the innings dwindled through a steady procession of wickets. Alzarri Joseph, the slippery young quick in for Shannon Gabriel, picked up four for 76 and only Ben Stokes, 34 from 20 balls, managed truly to cut loose. Plunkett was the last man to fall when run out off the final ball of the innings but not before crashing England’s 10th six.
In keeping with their two defeats in Antigua, West Indies saw their innings derailed from the outset. Finn persuaded Kieran Powell to plop his third ball to Hales at square-leg, and his new-ball partner Woakes followed it up with the removal of Lewis and Kraigg Brathwaite in successive overs and equally tame fashion.
Plunkett, in clattering the stumps of Jason Mohammed for 10 and removing Shai Hope and Holder in successive deliveries, made it a case of when and by how many. And only some late-order slogs from Joseph, with 22 from 13 balls, pulled the margin of defeat under 200.