Root leads England to crushing eight-wicket win over West Indies
SOUTHAMPTON, England (Reuters) - Joe Root’s classy unbeaten century led England to a comprehensive eight-wicket victory over West Indies in a one-sided Cricket World Cup match in Southampton on Friday.
Jofra Archer and Mark Wood took three wickets apiece as England bowled the Windies out for a modest 212 after winning the toss, and Root’s 100 not out took the hosts and tournament favourites to their target with more than 16 overs to spare.
England’s third win in four matches lifted them to second in the 10-team standings while West Indies are sixth following their second loss.
“It’s obviously nice for this hundred to mean something and for us to win. It was a great toss to win and important we followed through on that,” said man-of-the-match Root, who also took two key wickets.
“You pride yourself on working it out as a batsman, building big partnerships either when setting or closing down a chase like we did today. It was a really good team effort and performance.”
England made a fast start when Chris Woakes dismissed Evin Lewis for two before Wood dropped destructive West Indies opener Chris Gayle.
The error did not prove too costly, however, as Gayle fell to Liam Plunkett for 36 and Shai Hope was trapped lbw by Wood for 11 to leave West Indies in trouble at 55-3.
Nicholas Pooran and Shimron Hetmyer shared a fluent fourth-wicket partnership of 89, but Hetmyer was caught and bowled by Root for 39 and the part-time spinner soon dismissed Windies captain Jason Holder in identical fashion.