Star England batter Joe Root remained unbeaten on 135 at the end of Day One of the ongoing second Ashes Test against Australia at the Gabba. His century not only saved England from a batting collapse but also made sure that former Australian batter Matthew Hayden did not have to fulfil one of the strangest vows ever taken.
Before the start of this Ashes series, Hayden vowed that he would walk nude around the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) if Root did not make a hundred this summer.
Now, after seeing Root finally notch up his maiden Test ton on Australian soil, Hayden was seen congratulating the England batter in a video released by the England Cricket Board (ECB) on X (formerly known as Twitter).
In the video, Hayden said: “G’day Joe. Congratulations, mate on a hundred here in Australia. Took you a while and there was no-one that had more skin in the game than me, literally. I was backing you for a hundred in a good way. So mate, congratulations. Ten fifties and finally a hundred—you little ripper mate. Have a beauty and bloody enjoy it.”
Root came to bat when England were two down for just five runs in the third over after Mitchell Starc removed Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope. Both of them could not open their account. After negotiating Starc’s fierce bowling early in his innings, Root stitched a 117-run partnership with Zak Crawley that provided much-needed stability to England’s innings.
While wickets continued to fall from the other end, Root made sure he played the anchor’s role. He built two more important partnerships—adding 54 runs with captain Ben Stokes and an unbeaten 61 runs with Jofra Archer. Root’s innings so far includes 15 fours and a six.
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