England captain Joe Root lauded his team for their “ruthless” performance against West Indies on day one of the first day-night Test match in the country. (SCORECARD)
Centurion Root and England dominated the tourists at Edgbaston on Thursday, reaching 348-3 by the close of play, having slipped to 39-2 in the first hour.
Joe Root (138) teamed up with former skipper Alastair Cook (158 not out) for a record third-wicket partnership, both players compiling centuries and posting a 248-run stand.
COOK REACHES 150! What a day/night it’s been as he brings it up with another boundary! 👏
344/3 #ENGvWI
Follow: https://t.co/rxDAQ4457N pic.twitter.com/9aE96t52ju
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) August 17, 2017
With the pink ball, the Windies and their bowling attack struggled to contain England, who head into the second day with Dawid Malan unbeaten on 28.
Cracking shot @root66!
79/2 #ENGvWI
Follow here ➡️ https://t.co/rxDAQ4457N pic.twitter.com/3pMAtToPiV
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) August 17, 2017
“It has been a very good day,” said Root. “We said before the game, if we got into a position of strength, we wanted to drive that forward and be really ruthless. It’s something we did well in the previous two games against South Africa and again today.
ROOOOOT!! @root66 scores his 13th Test century from just 139 balls! 🙌https://t.co/rxDAQ4457N pic.twitter.com/FZf4ZsYKbV
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) August 17, 2017
“It will mean nothing though if we don’t back it up tomorrow, so for Cooky to be 153 not out, is great. We’ve got to kick on from here and make sure we get a really big first-innings lead.
“The twilight period of the day didn’t really go well for me, but the guys at the back-end – Cook and Malan – did amazingly well as, in other day-night games around the world, that period seems to be the trickiest.
Cops and robbers in the Hollies Stand! 👮
Match centre: https://t.co/TLV5vcIC9X #ENGvWI pic.twitter.com/CW9wAaW6Ce
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) August 17, 2017
“It’s a very difficult period to come out in bat in – it would be even on a normal Test match day, with 15 overs left in the day – so for Dawid to make sure he was still there at the end, 28 not out, was a fantastic effort.
“It’s another challenge that Test cricket throws at you. There are slight differences and we did practice with the pink ball at different points during the day ahead of the game, to make sure we had all bases covered.
“We didn’t have too many preconceived ideas, went in with an open mind and tried to just play the situation in front of us, so I thought we did very well.”
WICKET Root bowled by Roach after scoring a brilliant 136
287/3 #ENGvWI
Match centre: https://t.co/rxDAQ4457N pic.twitter.com/mJkNXuhs9D
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) August 17, 2017
Meanwhile, Windies paceman Kemar Roach revelled in his emotional return to international cricket.
Roach had not featured for the Windies since January last year due to injuries and loss of form, however the 29-year-old right-arm bowler was back in the Test arena on Thursday, taking 2-72.
“It was very emotional. Tears came out of my eyes. I put in a lot of hard work to get back here,” he said afterwards. “It feels good to be selected again. I was a little nervous but it went away a few minutes later. It’s all about moving forward from here and performing for the Windies.
“I put a lot of hard work in over the years. It’s good to see it paid off. The coaches put confidence in me for me to express myself. Keep performing and hopefully become one of the best bowlers for the Windies.”
Source: HindustanTimes