Stranded on an agonising 99 not out, Joe Root could have easily cut a frustrated figure. Instead, as the winning runs were struck by Gus Atkinson in Cardiff yesterday, the elder statesman celebrated England's hard-ground-out victory over India in the second ODI with the unbridled passion of a young 'un hitting a first international sixer. At the post-match conference, he simply summed up: “It would've felt a lot worse if we'd lost.”
“It's all about winning, and there's no better feeling in cricket than being there at the end [when] you chase something down."
Root always looked absolutely certain to notch his 62nd international century. With just 12 runs needed from the last eight overs, he was sitting comfortably on 97. However, after he took a single at the start of the 43rd over, Gus Atkinson faced the next five balls and took a single off the last to keep the strike. That sequence left Root stationed at the non-striker's end to start the 45th over.
Atkinson understandably would have wanted to nudge a single to give his senior partner a chance to score the winning runs and cross the milestone. It was under this assumption that Shubman Gill tightened his fielding setup, bringing the Indian players into the ring to stifle the rotation of strike.
{{/usCountry}}Atkinson understandably would have wanted to nudge a single to give his senior partner a chance to score the winning runs and cross the milestone. It was under this assumption that Shubman Gill tightened his fielding setup, bringing the Indian players into the ring to stifle the rotation of strike.
{{/usCountry}}But Root was quick to alleviate any pressure on the No. 8 batter.
"If they want to set fields like that and give us a chance to win the game, then let's take it,” said the former captain. "I told Atkinson, 'You take the balls that are there to be hit and go for the shots; I have no problem if I don't get my hundred’”.
What happened in the match?
Atkinson duly complied. With three runs needed to win, he rocked back and pulled the next ball aggressively behind square. The boundary took England over the line with 35 balls to spare, with Atkinson finishing unbeaten on 23.
"I never play for my personal milestones," Root said afterwards. "A hundred is not something that is extremely important to me. Whenever I step onto the field, my only aim is to help the team win, and winning for the team is always my top priority."
It would be amiss to call Root’s innings defensive, because apart from a couple of Jasprit Bumrah and Axar Patel overs, he negated risk and rotated the strike comfortably. He dispatched the occasional poor ball to the fence, pulling shorter deliveries and flicking slot balls off his pads to the leg side, hitting nine fours in total. But at no point did the slow run rate or the paucity of boundaries get under his skin, as it did to Will Jacks and Harry Brook earlier on.
In a month where England officially marked the end of the risky run-scoring era of 'Bazball' Test cricket, Root turned back the clock with brilliant, pragmatic, Test-style play to steer his side home in the second ODI. An elite control percentage of 84% at the end of his knock confirmed what the eye test had already witnessed: sublime composure.
The stylistic magnitude of the win was not lost on the matchwinner.
“I'm delighted that we found a way of doing it ugly and doing it in a way that probably doesn't suit a lot of the other guys and what they're used to doing and how they're used to playing," he reflected. "It shapes us up really well with what's to come, and a great experience of a big pressure game ahead of a World Cup in 2027."
"That's why you play to win. And for us to have that carrot ahead of us winning [the series decider] at Lord's and the chance to beat the number one team in the world is really exciting."