Normal services have resumed for England batter Jason Roy after he scored a hard-hitting century in the ongoing first ODI against South Africa in Bloemfontein. Need of the hour for him at a personal level, Roy appears to have put behind a lean patch in international cricket which saw him getting dropped from the T20I squad.
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Roy, who had scored a century during the tour of Netherlands last year, wasn’t particularly in the category of batters who had to wait for years before touching the three-figure mark again. Having said that, him scoring 160 runs at an average of 20 including a couple of ducks in eight ODI innings between the two centuries had started to cast doubts around his opening spot.
Roy, who faces intense competition from several potential like-for-like replacements in terms of swashbuckling batters, brought up his fourth ODI century away from home and under captain Jos Buttler and first against and in South Africa in a 299-run chase.
Clearly dominating out of the two English openers, Roy did the heavy lifting in a 119-run opening partnership alongside Dawid Malan (59). The 32-year old player hit a total of 11 fours and four sixes at a strike rate of 124.17 to put his team in the driver’s seat at the Mangaung Oval on Friday.
Jonny Bairstow jumps for joy as Jason Roy scores 11th ODI century vs South Africa
England batter Jonny Bairstow, who would’ve opened the batting with Roy had it not been for a fractured leg, took to social media platform Twitter to express admiration of someone with whom he has opened the batting on 51 out of the 64 times in this format.
A primary reason behind Bairstow and numerous English fans’ celebration for Roy’s innings is because of his recent form across formats.
It was on the third ball that he faced that Roy hit South Africa’s Wayne Parnell for on-drive to get going with a boundary. Parnell’s next over saw Roy increasing the number of boundary shots to two.
It was right after the first powerplay that South Africa captain Temba Bavuma made the first bowling change in the form of introducing a part-time spinner in Aiden Markram. Quick to grab the opportunity, Roy danced down the track to hit Markram for a six.
Roy, who registered a 45-ball half-century in the 14th over, hit Anrich Nortje for a couple of boundaries in the same over. There was practically no stopping an all-attack approach as Roy hit a six and four each in Nortje’s next over. Spinner Tabriaz Shamsi wasn’t spared either as he, too, conceded a couple of boundaries in the following over.
Although three English batters had been dismissed in quick succession, an undeterred Roy hit another boundary off Nortje to bring up a 79-ball ton right before the halfway mark.
