Jason Roy was sleepless the night before his eight ODI hundred

Chasing a target of 341, set by Pakistan at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, Jason Roy scored a brilliant hundred which set England at the dominant position right from the start of the second innings. A night before the cricketer couldn’t even manage to sleep as he was looking after his two-month-old daughter. He turned up for the game and scored his eighth ODI hundred to ensure the hosts won the series with a game to spare.

The right-handed opening batsman played a magnificent 89-ball 114-run knock while building steady partnerships with James Vince (43) and Joe Root (36). Before Friday’s game, the 4th ODI of the five-match ODI series, Roy came close to the three figures mark with scores of 87 and 76 in the previous two outings, but finally reaching the hundred on a day full of emotional roller coaster must have been huge for the 28-year-old.

England won the match by three wickets (with three balls remaining) and Roy was named the ‘Man of the match’. Despite being sleep deprived Roy was also active on the field, showcasing brilliant pieces of fielding every now and then. While he saved boundaries and even a six, he himself crossed the rope with 11 fours and four sixes later on with almost no sign of the tension on his face. 

To pull off such an act of courage is really remarkable for a 28-year-old who has a newborn daughter. Prior to the game, during the early hours of the morning Roy’s daughter Everly, who was born in March this year, fell ill and hence the couple, Jason and his wife Elle rushed their sick daughter to the hospital and only returned seven hours later. Since then the cricketer only got two hours of sleep and just made in time for the pre-match warm-up.

It was a very emotional hundred, says Roy

After the match, Roy said, “I had a bit of a rough morning so this one is a special one for me and my family. It was my little one. We had to take her to the hospital at 01:30 in the morning. I stayed there until 08:30 and came back for a couple of hours sleep and got to the ground just before warm-up and cracked on. It was a very emotional hundred.”

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He further said that the innings was but a sweet surprise for him, as he feels he isn’t in his best form currently. “I’m not in the form of my life. It was not my most fluent of innings but was it was an extremely special feeling get over three figures? I didn’t see it coming, ” Roy added.

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