There’s not much to say on the last couple of days – basically England have ground Australia into dust. That’s my summary. England lead by 566 runs with wickets and time in hand. Pretty comfortable.…
Instead I’m going to concentrate on today’s hero, Joe Root.
“I were chuffed to bits”…so said Joe when asked to reflect on his stupendously good ‘mega ton’ he scored today. I was rather happy too.
After a couple of low scores after his switch from late middle order batsman to opener I was beginning to wonder if the promotion up to the top of the order, although not the natural progression, was perhaps a little early. What rubbish! And about as accurate as my previous criticism of Ian Bell for not scoring enough runs when it really mattered (another lovely half century for him today)
Today’s unbeaten ton for Root was as good as they come. I’ve just watched the highlights. And watched them again. And I’ve saved them for another viewing tomorrow. It was glorious TV. Some of the shots he played defied logic. The placement he found was simply incredible. I don’t think I actually saw him hit a ball particularly hard and yet he scored 20 boundaries (including two sixes). At the crease he looks in many ways like a carbon copy of Michael Vaughan. And he plays some glorious shots like him too – but he can also shift through the gears in a way that few other batsmen can. So he started the days play fairly circumspect, blocking the ball and playing each delivery on its merits, then once he had registered his ton he hit another 50, this time in less than 70 balls. That’s not a bad one day rate.
The only two English batsmen of recent times who I have seen switch the pace so seamlessly are Graham Gooch and Kevin Pieterson.…not bad players to look to emulate.
And where does young Joe hail from? Well God’s own county, YORKSHIRE. The mighty county keeps on delivering top class players for the England team. First up Tim Bresnan made a major dent in the Aussie batting line up and then followed it up with an excellent and highly frustrating (for the Aussies) innings with the bat. And then Joe steps up and hits a ‘daddy’ ton.
As if the likes of Fred Trueman, Geoffrey Boycott, Darren Gough and Michael Vaughan weren’t enough, Yorkshire continues to provide an unbreakable line of (Sheffield) steel to our national side. Even better – the one Australian to make any impact in this match – Ryan Harris – he played a bit for Yorkshire too! All together now, YORKSHIRE, YORKSHIRE YORKSHIRE.
Oh by the way…as Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Tim Bresnan lord it up over the Aussies, their county of birth still manages to do very well thank you very much without them. They’ve just beaten Derbyshire by a whopping innings and 113 runs with new cub off the block Alex Lees smashing the attack for 275 not out. That’s more than Derbyshire managed in either of their innings in total.
The future’s bright, the future’s Yorkshire.
“The pink ball appears grey/blue in red/green deficient vision, depending on its severity. I did a simulation with colour blindness…”