Joe Root hails Mark Wood selection risk as 'easy decision' following series win over South Africa
Wood returns match figures of 9-100 as England beat South Africa by 191 runs in fourth Test in Johannesburg
Tuesday 28 January 2020 13:43, UK
Joe Root praised Durham duo Mark Wood and Ben Stokes for breaking the game open with two crucial strikes on the stroke of tea, as England clinched a 3-1 series win over South Africa with a 191-run victory in the fourth Test.
South Africa frustrated England for large parts of the fourth day, losing only two wickets through the first four hours of play, but the Stokes bowled Proteas captain Faf du Plessis and Wood dismissed Rassie van der Dussen - two short of a maiden Test century - in quick succession.
England blasted out the South African lower order in the final session to ultimately clinch a comfortable victory and only a second overseas series win in six for Root as skipper.
"It feels great," Root told Sky Sports after picking up the Basil D'Oliveira trophy. "They made us work hard for it today, they really did, and played some really good cricket.
"But the two northern lads [Stokes and Wood] showed an enormous amount of heart just before tea and cracked it right open for us. It always felt like it was a bang-bang sort of a wicket and that made a huge difference in terms of the rest of the day."
Wood finished with four second-innings wickets as South Africa were bowled out for 274 and match figures of 9-100, despite feeling sore and having been a doubt for the game after the injury-prone fast bowler had played his first Test in nearly a year in Port Elizabeth only a week prior.
Root had to make a late call to include Wood in a five-pronged pace attack after Jofra Archer failed a late fitness test ahead of the first morning's play at The Wanderers, but said it was "an easy decision".
Wood and Archer would have made a big difference last time, I do believe that. Pace is something you need in those conditions.
"We made some very strong calls, took it out of players' hands and made sure we gave Woody, for example, every opportunity to succeed," said Root.
"You watched him bowl and, of course he was feeling it but he was still able to deliver his skills, and still coming out at a good pace.
"We knew he'd be able to get over it [his soreness] during the course of the game and, with five seamers, we could sort of manage him through the first day if we ended up having to bowl first.
"It was a calculated risk but, the confidence he had coming in from the last game, it was quite an easy decision.
"He has got a huge amount of energy and, as I say, just before tea the two Durham lads showed a huge amount of fight and did exactly what we needed, with nothing more than just desire and will to get a wicket.
"I think that's an area we've really improved on. It takes more than just skill to take wickets, you've got to have something else - it's an attitude.
We definitely delivered that just before tea and it made a big difference going into the last session."
England lost the first Test of the series in Centurion, coming off the back of a gruelling 1-0 series loss in New Zealand, but Root says their three-straight wins since have shown the side the template they want to take forward under new head coach Chris Silverwood.
"We made it very clear at the start of the winter how we wanted to play, and that has not changed at all; keep things very simple, make big first-innings runs and then try and drive the game forward with the ball," added Root. "It has been really pleasing seeing the guys go out and deliver that.
"That will be a big focus for us moving forward, wherever we are in the world. We'll have slightly different strategies of doing it but, as a template, the last couple of games are pretty much where we want to be.
"It gives us a huge amount of confidence. It's really nice to know that with everything we've put in place, we're thinking the right things."
