England scored a mammoth score 357 at loss of five wickets on the first day of Lord’s Test after losing their four wickets before lunch. With new captain Joe Root lead from the front, he came to the crease when the team’s score was 17/2 but was still unbeaten when both the teams went back to the pavilion at the end of game’s play scoring 184 runs in just 227 balls.
Root was dropped twice in his innings, along with Root, Moen Ali also went back unbeaten at the score of 61, they both are sharing unbeaten partnership 167-runs for the sixth-wicket. Before Ali, it was Ben Stokes who stuck there with Root for 114-runs. Root scored his 12th Test century in a very first game after taking charge as the captain of England Test team. He became the fourth English cricketer after Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen and Alastair Cook.
Earlier, after winning the toss the toss England opted to bat first and lost both its openers before any of them could reach double digits, The home team lost their third wicket before completing 50 runs of the team, they lost their fourth wicket as wicket keeper batsman Johnny Bairstow was dismissed by South African pacer Vernon Philander. Before Root, Stokes and Moen Ali started their domination
Root called it a nice start and said that “I’m in a dreamland now, I rode my luck but early on fell into place and I managed to capitalize on it,” He further added that they will look to post a really big total on the board on the second day and said that England seamers will get them into the game when they will come out to bowl.
While from South African side pacer Vernon Philander gave the starting to the bowling side what they had asked for, they bowled outstandingly before the lunch, they picked early wickets but once Joe Root was set on the crease the South African bowlers found no way to go. Only Philander was impressive with his stats of 3/46 in 16 overs. “It was a very good start but the way we came out after lunch was something we are not very proud of as a bowling unit,” Morkel said
