I am in dreamworld now, says new England skipper Joe Root

London, July 7: Joe Root said he had finished his first day as England captain in "dreamworld" after making an unbeaten 184 in the first Test against South Africa at Lord's on Thursday.

Root did not have much of a voice to use at his post-play press conference after waking up feeling "pretty groggy". But opting for an old-fashioned approach of wearing several layers trying to sweat out his cold while taking on plenty of fluids, he helped England turn the tide on the opening day of this four-match series with an unbeaten hundred.

Root said he had felt "in a bit of a dreamworld" and later, talking to reporters, accepted he could hardly have written a better script for himself. "I don't think so, especially getting dropped once and just chipping someone on the boundary. It just seemed to fall into place today," he said.

"When you get a life early, sometimes you feel like it is your day and you've got to try to make the most of it." Root added: "I felt pretty groggy this morning. But nothing was going to stop me enjoying the day. I made the most of everything and the cold wasn't going to get in the way. It may have helped me concentrate slightly out there, knowing I wasn't a hundred percent."

He now has the chance to surpass the previous highest score in a first Test as captain of 239 made by New Zealand's Graham Dowling in 1968. "It was a nice feeling getting that call back (after the over-turned stumping) when you know you've made a glaring error like that," said Root, who added he would look to push on to a "really big score".

AFP