England’s bid for a first ever Cricket World Cup triumph finally got underway this morning against South Africa at The Oval in the tournament curtain raiser.
Jason Roy and Joe Root fell in the space of four balls after their century stand at the Oval helped England recover from the early loss of Jonny Bairstow for a golden duck in the World Cup opener against South Africa.
South African sprung a surprise by opening with legspinner Imran Tahir after they won the toss. It worked immediately, with Bairstow propping forward and being caught behind off the second ball of the tournament.
Roy and Root were unperturbed, though, and both made steady half-centuries in a stand of 106. Shortly after both brought up the milestone in the same Dwaine Pretorius over, England lost both men in four balls.
Roy, having just boshed four down the ground, top-edged Andile Phehlukwayo to mid-on, then Root was caught at point off the returning Kagiso Rabada, the leader of the attack in the absence of the injured Dale Steyn.
That brought Eoin Morgan, who had earlier been presented with a special cap by Andrew Strauss for becoming England’s first ODI player capped 200 times, and Ben Stokes together.
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