Joe Root could not have started his captaincy career on a better note. Given the opportunity to make his captaincy debut at the historic Lord’s ground, England’s batting mainstay made the most of it, slamming a majestic 190 in the first innings before his bowlers did a splendid job to fire the Three Lions to a 1-0 lead in the four-match series against South Africa.
After being in command for the majority of the sessions on the first three days of the Test, England were on the backfoot on the fourth morning, losing their last nine wickets for just 94 runs to be all out for 233 from 139 for 1. But England’s spin duo of Moeen Ali (6-53) and Liam Dawson (2-34) wreaked havoc on the Proteas to bowl them out for a paltry 119 in 36.4 overs, giving England a whopping victory of 211 runs. In fact, South Africa’s capitulation was so spectacular on a turning Lord’s pitch that even Root was taken by surprise on the easy victory that came inside four days.
“If I’m being honest, I thought if we batted well, we’d make a decision around tea and try and get in a good position going into tomorrow,” he said after the match. “We knew how much it was spinning and variable bounce was a major part of it. To bat in the fourth innings on there was always going to be very difficult.
“Here at Lord’s, it’s generally been quite low scores. I think it’s a credit to the way the guys went about it in both innings with the bat. To be as clinical as we were with the ball first innings, keeping that one hundred run lead was massive. It’s a great start and the whole team were fabulous throughout. Everything that was thrown at them, they responded really well. It’s great to be 1-0 up going into Trent Bridge,” he added.
Moeen Ali was England’s standout performer in the Test, scoring a vital 87 and taking 4 wickets in the first innings before the decisive six-wicket haul in the second innings. The off-spinner did not have a good outing last year where he managed just 37 wickets at an average of over 37 but has started the new season with a bang, taking his maiden ten-for. Root has asked Moeen to bowl aggressively and the bowler, as well as the team, reaped the rewards for it.
“I think that’s when he’s at his best when he is aggressive and attacking,” said Root. “He gets great shape on the ball plus a lot of revs on it makes it very difficult for batsmen to line him up.
“The lines he bowled this week were outstanding with those foot holes playing a massive part,” said Root. “Whenever you can get a spinner beating both sides of the bat, it’s very difficult to play against it. We’re very lucky that we had two spinning options which proved crucial today.”
England were put in the driver’s seat on the third day when their top-order had scored 119 runs for the loss of 1 wicket on a difficult pitch. Alastair Cook and Keaton Jennings had added 80 runs for the first wicket before the former and Gary Ballance shared an unbeaten partnership of 39 runs to put England firmly in command of the proceedings. Root praised the top-order for their important role in the win before crediting all his teammates for the contributions.
“I think what it does tell us is how well the guys played last night,” said Root. “Cooky, Keaton and Gary, that 100 runs coming into today, I think they made the wicket look a lot easier than it was and was probably worth double. They need a lot of credit.
“Everyone’s played their part this week. It’s very important that that was the case and people did stand up at certain times. It might not have been a 6-fer or a 50 or whatever but there were some crucial periods where guys showed a lot of character, were very proactive in the way they went about it, read the situation well and affected the game in a positive manner,” he said.
Speaking on how he dealt with the players in his maiden Test, Root said: “What was really pleasing was that everything I asked of the lads, they were very open to do and responded really well too.”