Jason Roy, an English batsman who had struck a tough patch in his declining career, got a significant boost when he hammered a century against South Africa in the first One-Day International on Friday (January 28). Rassie van der Dussen’s century guaranteed that England lost the match by 27 runs, despite his courageous knock. Nonetheless, Roy’s century gives the English team a lift as they prepare for the 2018 ODI World Cup in India.
In all, this was his first 50-plus knock in 15 international innings, as he struck an astonishing 79-ball century. After the game, he said that he became emotional after making a tremendous hit and acknowledged that the last few years had been difficult.
“I’m feeling pretty well, I actually didn’t sleep that well – I got around five hours’ sleep, I was a little overpowered by a few emotions and things like that, it’s been a rough few months. “I woke up incredibly good, it was the nicest five hours of sleep I’d had,” Jason Roy told independent.co.uk.
The 32-year-old opener’s celebration of a century emphasised both his long wait for a huge knock and his recent troubles. He admitted that there was some fury in his jubilation and described how he overcome his difficulties.
“This has been a terrible year. “(The celebration) was tinged with resentment because I put everything in the back of my mind, locked a few things up in a cupboard, and went out and played the way I’ve played my whole career,” Roy continued.
The top-order batsman scored 39 runs in three One-Day Internationals against Australia in November last year and was recently dropped from England’s T20I squad. Roy scored 100 runs in eight innings for Paarl Royals in the current SA20 2023 season and will be under pressure to improve on his recent century. He denied getting carried away and said that he would continue to work ahead of a huge year for England in ODIs.
“Certainly not, I don’t see it that way. I’ve played a lot of games in my career and have been around for a long time, and even after a horrible year, you can easily be forgotten. “It’s a question of maintaining pushing, keeping this atmosphere and culture we have in the squad going because we have a big year ahead of us in 50-over cricket,” Jason Roy added.
