The fellow player snatched the century from Joe Root. (Photo- PTI)
Joe Root 99 Not Out vs India: In the second ODI match played between India and England at Sophia Gardens ground in Cardiff, host England defeated Team India by 4 wickets. With this victory, the three-match ODI series is now tied at 1-1. The biggest hero of this victory of England was the experienced batsman Joe Root, who took the team out of trouble by handling one end. But at the end of this match, a strange and heart-breaking incident was seen, when Root remained just 1 run away from his century and his teammate ended the match.
Drama of the last overs, how did Root miss his century?
When Joe Root, who was on the verge of scoring the 21st century of his ODI career, was playing on 97 runs, England needed only 12 runs in the last 8 overs to win. In the 43rd over, which was Jasprit Bumrah’s last over, Root took his score to 98 runs with a single. After this, in the 44th over, number-8 batsman Gus Atkinson, who was at the crease, played almost the entire over himself and kept the strike with a single on the last ball.
At the beginning of the 45th over, India called the fielding completely in to prevent fours and keep Root deprived of a century. Prasidh Krishna started this over with a wide, after which England needed 3 runs to win and Root needed 1 run for a century. At this time, Root ran from the non-striker’s end and talked to Atkinson. But Atkinson played a shot on the very next ball and took the ball across the boundary, giving England victory in 35 balls. With this four, Gus Atkinson returned unbeaten on 23 runs, but Joe Root remained stranded on 99 runs.
Unique record made in ODI cricket history
With this innings, an unwanted record has been registered in the name of Joe Root, which rarely happens with any batsman. Joe Root has become the first England batsman in the history of One Day International cricket to remain not out on 99 runs. If all formats are combined, he is the sixth player from England to do so. If we look at the history of ODI cricket of all the countries around the world, Joe Root is only the 17th player in the world who has returned to the pavilion unbeaten on the score of 99.
Joe Root made a big revelation after the match
Even though fans are surprised by this shot of Gus Atkinson on social media, Joe Root himself has no regrets about it. After the match was over, Joe Root made a big revelation and said that he himself had gone to Gus Atkinson and told him not to worry about his century at all and just focus on winning the match. This sporting spirit of Root shows that for him the team’s victory matters more than personal records.
