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Joe Root praises Eoin Morgan's England captaincy while Steve Smith rues another Australia collapse

Joe Root celebrates taking the wicket of Steve Smith: Getty
Joe Root celebrates taking the wicket of Steve Smith: Getty

The Gabba pitch for the first Ashes Test in November defied expectations and so did this one, though it was England who adapted far better than their hosts.

When David Warner pulled Mark Wood’s second ball of the match for four, all the chatter was about a 350-plus belter. Yet once Eoin Morgan had brought his spinners – including Joe Root – into the action, the game took a very different turn.

“It was frustrating as we got ourselves into a reasonable position with 11 overs to go, and everything fell to pieces again,” said the Australia captain Steve Smith, who is being questioned about his own form in the 50-over game and his side’s record of one win in their last 10.

“We went in without the spinner on this occasion and tried to make the batting deeper but that it didn’t work as well as we would have liked. So we’re still trying to find the right balance.”

It is easy to forget that Australia were the champions of the 2015 tournament at which England performed so poorly.

Asked about Joe Root’s bowling, Smith was wearily gracious: “I didn’t think we played him as well as we could have done. There were probably a few soft dismissals in there and the wicket was probably stopping a little bit. It wasn’t as easy as it can normally be playing spin out here.

“But England outplayed us again in every facet of the game. In Sydney it is obviously a do-or-die clash for us and we have to come out and play some better one-day cricket.”

Asked about his own bowling, Root said: “How long have you got?! Eoin just turned to me. Moeen came on quite early and we saw there was some grip and hold and I was just trying to sneak some overs in. It went a little better than we all anticipated. That’s quite smart captaincy from him to be able to juggle things round.”

Joe Root produced with both bat and ball (Getty)
Joe Root produced with both bat and ball (Getty)

Remarkably man-of-the-match Root seems re-energised after the torment – physical and mental – of the Ashes. He said: “It’s a great driver coming from a difficult series like we have. To play convincingly and be there at the end is the sort of thing you pride yourself on as a batter – making sure you’re the one to get the job done.”

And as for the inevitable Ben Stokes question, Root handled it with the same assuredness as he had Mitchell Starc earlier in the evening.

He said: “It’s out of our hands. We’ve got to make sure we keep trying to win this series and get the best out of this squad or cricketers. When you’ve got guys like Ben Stokes missing out and still to come back in it’s a great place to be as a side. There will be some difficult decisions for Trevor Bayliss and Morgs down the line.”