Jason Roy and his over-shadowed century
When we respect the tree for its fruits we fail to glorify the soil which helped the tree grow. This is exactly what has happened after England'’s series win over Pakistan in Dubai on Friday. Everyone is praising the unimaginable innings by Jos Buttler, but an equally important, if not better innings, by opener Jason Roy is almost forgotten.
It is surprising that no cricket expert has yet written an article praising Roy’s ton. Buttler's knock was sheer destruction. From head to tail, he ripped through the Pakistan attack while Roy respected the bowlers.
He was never at his best; he struggled to time the ball for most of his innings, but he never gave his wicket away. He held on to his nerve, played an innings that was completely against his natural game and brought up his century in 113 balls.
While that is not slow, especially given the English ODI standards, but for a man with a List-A strike rate of almost 105 and a first-class strike rate of almost 85, this was an untypical and testing innings. In fact, Roy’s ODI strike rate went below 100 only after this slow show on Friday and is now at 98.29.
The 25-year-old’s innings is as good as that of Jos Buttler’s for a number of reasons. Arguably the most important one is simply who he faced predominantly. While Buttler faced just 2 balls of Yasir Shah, Roy faced 33, scoring at a run-a-ball.
Yasir Shah, the bowler who sent nightmares in the English line-up in the Test series was handled expertly as Roy faced more than half of Shah’s deliveries and his two cut shots to the fence were a treat to the eyes.
Roy also established his strong hold over spin when he lofted Shoaib Malik over long off. In fact, he spared no bowler as he hit boundaries off Mohammed Irfan, Wahab Riaz and Anwar Ali at various points in his innings. He was involved in a 140-run stand for the second wicket with Joe Root which laid the foundations for Buttler to come in and rip apart the Pakistan attack.
Earlier in the series, the 25-year-old got off to a good start in the second match in which he scored 54 runs and looked more in control before sending a full length delivery from Wahab Riaz into the hands of Shoaib Malik. However in the series-decider, he got his maiden century and helped his side claim victory.
The best thing about Roy's hundred is that he played it out of his comfort zone. Anyone who has watched him bat for some time can definitely say that his innings isn’t an accurate description of the kind of player he is. His 57-ball ton for Surrey, which was the 1st T20 ton by a Surrey batsman is more like him.
Nevertheless he managed to hang in there and score a much wanted century which laid the platform for an English assault or a Buttler assault however you like to term i