Joe Root started his work in this year’s Ashes in an expected fashion
Joe Root started his work in this year’s Ashes in an expected fashion as he thumped a cracking ton yesterday to help England post a substantial total on the board at the end of day 1 in the first Ashes test match being played in Cardiff.
He had had some nervy moments at the start though. In fact, he could have returned to the pavilion on zero if the Australian wicketkeeper, Brad Haddin, had held on to a catch diving to his right.
It was only the second ball that Root was facing in his innings. He tried to dig out a wide Yorker and got a leading edge.
The ball flew to Haddin at a good height, but, it was, by no means, an easy catch. He had to dive full stretch.
Those types of catches actually stick in the gloves, but, unluckily for Australia, it hit the hard part of the gloves and popped out.
Root counter attacked thereafter and took the attack to the Australian camp.
He was not afraid of playing the ball in the air.
Michael Clarke, as he naturally does, was on the attack with three slips, two gulleys, and backward point and there was no fielder back on the boundary square of the wicket on the off side.
Root took advantage of that and played some lofted cut shots whenever presented with a little bit of width.
His shots on the front foot were quite watchable too.
The most important thing was the mindset that he showed. Three wickets were down when he arrived, but, he was not ready to go into his shell.
England, however, does not have complete hold on the match at this point of time. They lost 4 wickets in the last session and they are only 340 odd right now.
They would be looking for 100 more tomorrow.