Jason Roy roars back to form with 11th ODI ton
What's the story
England opener Jason Roy has roared back to form with a fiery ton in the opening ODI versus South Africa, albeit in a losing cause.
He scored 113 off 91 balls, a knock studded with 11 fours and four maximums.
Overall, it was his 11th ton in the format. Roy also raced past 4,000 ODI runs.
Here we look at his stats.
Performance
A fiery knock from Roy
Chasing 299, England got off to a flying start as Roy and Dawid Malan added 146 runs for the first wicket.
Roy was the aggressor in the partnership as he took SA bowlers by storm.
He reached his ton off just 79 deliveries.
It was indeed an important knock from Roy as he hadn't touched the 50-run mark in his previous 14 international innings.
Stats
4,000 ODI runs for Jason Roy
During the course of his knock, Roy also became the 12th England player to complete 4,000 ODI runs.
He now owns 4,106 in 111 games at 40.25.
Roy's ODI strike rate of 106.42 is only second to Jos Buttler (118.66) among English batters with 4,000 or more runs.
Among England players, only Marcus Trescothick (4,335) owns more ODI runs as an opener than Roy.
Stats
Another interesting record by Roy
Roy's tally of 11 ODI tons is now the fourth-most for an England batter.
He equals Jonny Bairstow in this regard.
Joe Root (16), Eoin Morgan (13), and Trescothick (12) are ahead of him on this list.
Meanwhile, Roy also owns 21 fifties in the format.
His 180 versus Australia in 2018 remains the highest individual ODI score by an Englishman.
Stats
Fifty for Dawid Malan
Roy's opening partner Dawid Malan smashed his third ODI fifty, a 55-ball 59.
Malan has now scored 514 runs in 13 ODIs at 51.4 (100s: 2).
Roy and Malan's partnership of 146 is the second-highest for an England opening pair in ODIs on South African soil.
Nasser Hussain and Nick Knight hold the top spot, having added 165 in the 2000 Bloemfontein ODI.
Summary
How did the game pan out?
Rassie Van der Dussen (111) and David Miller (53) powered the hosts to 298/7 while batting first at the Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein.
In reply, openers Jason Roy and Dawid Malan got England off to a flying start.
However, Anrich Nortje and Sisanda Magala's brilliant bowling helped SA stage a comeback and register a win.
England were eventually bundled out for 271.