Nottingham: Jason Roy was at a loss to explain how he had scored a match-winning century against Pakistan following an overnight visit to hospital with his baby daughter.
Roy’s superb 114 was the centrepiece of England’s chase as they beat Pakistan at Trent Bridge Friday to go 3-0 up with one to play in a one-day international series.
Yet Roy’s eighth century at this level came in trying circumstances, with the Surrey opening batsman saying he’d been more worried about daughter Everly than piling up the runs.
“It was a very emotional hundred. I didn’t see it coming,” Roy told BBC Radio’s Test Match Special.
“I had a bit of a rough morning so this one is a special one for me and my family,” added Roy, who returned to hospital after a three-wicket win, although his daughter’s condition is not believed to be serious.
“It was my little one. We had to take her to hospital at 1:30 in the morning. I stayed there until 8:30am, came back for a couple of hours sleep and got to the ground just before warm-up and cracked on,” he said.
England were cruising to a target of 341 while Roy was at the crease but, after comfortable wins at Southampton and Bristol, his dismissal sparked a collapse that saw three wickets lost for seven runs in 10 balls.
And when Moeen Ali was out for a duck, England were 216 for five.
But Ben Stokes’s unbeaten 71 eventually saw England win with three balls to spare.
While Roy was named man-of-the-match, the award could have gone to his Surrey team-mate Tom Curran.
The paceman took four for 75 in Pakistan’s 340 for seven, including the wicket of century-maker Babar Azam, and, batting at No 8, made 31 in a key stand of 61 with Stokes.
It all strengthened Curran’s case for a place in tournament hosts England’s final 15-man squad for the World Cup. with the showpiece event now just a matter of weeks away.
Curran, however, might have been run out for six had either Pakistan or the umpires spotted that a second direct hit in the same passage of play had dislodged the one remaining bail as he scrambled to complete a run.
AFP