England v Pakistan: Joe Root survives injury scare to fire Eoin Morgan’s side to comprehensive win in 2nd ODI at Lord’s

JOE ROOT must be climbing the new Prime Minister’s list of favourite Yorkshire batsmen.

Root scored 89 with his usual consummate ease and guided England to a comprehensive four-wicket victory over Pakistan in the second one-day international at Lord’s.

Not even a sickening – and potentially devastating – collision with Adil Rashid when holding a catch could prevent Root’s inexorable journey to another significant score.

And there to see it from a corporate box in the Grand Stand was Theresa May, who admits that one of her heroes is none other than Geoffrey Boycott.

Well, there’s no accounting for taste!

Mrs. May must have been impressed by Root’s total mastery of Pakistan’s bowlers even though he required a couple of doses of pain-killing and anti-inflammatory pills because his ankle was still giving him jip.

It was amazing that Root managed to cling onto the catch at deep backward square leg that dismissed Hasan Ali.

Root and Rashid both had their eyes on the ball and made no attempt to avoid each other. Their bodies thumped together in a tangle of limbs and Root stayed down, with his face on the turf.

The history of the game is littered with nasty injuries caused by the friendly fire of fielding.

Thankfully, after several worrying seconds and some treatment, it was clear Root was not badly hurt and he carried on patrolling the boundary.

Root said: “Adil has never tackled me like that before – not even in our warm-up football matches! It would have been a red card. I’ll be fine.”

Captain Eoin Morgan helped Root put on 112 for the third wicket and Morgan’s runs were most welcome.