England stalwart batter Joe Root showed why he is rated so highly as he smashed 72 runs off 35 balls for the Trent Rockets in their match against London Spirit at the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground on Saturday. Rockets were chasing down a total of 196 and they were reeling at 75 for the loss of three wickets in 51 balls but then Root came in at number 5 and joined Colin Munro in the middle and the duo revived the innings to some extent.
Root and Munro ended up putting on 69 runs for the fourth wicket before Liam Dawson removed the latter. Despite the wicket, Root continued to bat and remained unbeaten until the end and he took only 24 balls to reach his half-century. But then his knock was not enough to save the team as the Rockets went on to lose the match by two runs.
For Trent Rockets, Dan Lawrence hammered 93 runs off 49 balls with 10 fours and three sixes, helping the Rockets make 195 for four.
“We tried to keep him off strike the last few balls. He's brilliant, played some amazing shots,” Lawrence was quoted praising Joe Root.
"You've got to accept that some balls are going to go for six and then the next ball has to be your best ball again", he added.
Earlier, in the recently passed Ashes 2023, Joe Root scripted history in the fifth and final Ashes Test against Australia at The Oval. After making 92 runs, he helped the English side score 389 runs in their second innings. With this knock, he scored 412 runs in the Ashes 2023 and has equalled Sachin Tendulkar’s record for the most 300-plus runs in a series.
This is for the 19th time that Root gathered 300 plus runs in a series and also surpassed Rahul Dravid and Brian Lara, and has now standing equal to Tendulkar in the elite list.