England’s ‘benchmark’ win was built on pragmatism and flexibility

There was a collective dustiness in Manchester on Sunday, with revellers from the city’s vibrant Pride parade and its bumper sporting weekend blinking in the sunshine as they sought solutions to various self-inflicted ailments.

After levelling the series against South Africa through three days of dominance, England’s players began their Saturday evening celebrations on the outfield at Old Trafford; a wholesome game of cricket with some of the squad’s younger family members was staged as a salmon sky developed overhead.

Joe Root was among the combatants, plopping a catch to some safe hands at mid-on and jokingly recoiling in horror as he did three days earlier when Kagiso Rabada had his number for nine. That failure, it turned out, was significant in its insignificance, England winning their first Test without their premier batter firing for two years.

Scores of 228, 186, 218, 121, 115*, 175, 86*, 142* from Root had powered all eight of England’s victories during this period of 28 fixtures. And so while any self-respecting Yorkshireman would likely have preferred otherwise, breaking this run of reliance on his output can be added to the list of satisfying outcomes from what felt England’s most impressive win of this resurgent summer.

The string of run chases against New Zealand and India were thrilling, while this was as one-sided as South Africa’s triumph at Lord’s. But it was built on some earthy, pragmatic cricket at times, dispelling any notion of an inflexible, hell-raising approach under the captaincy of Ben Stokes and their new gum-chewing head coach, Brendon McCullum.

They rolled the tourists for 151 and 179 in contrasting conditions. The first was a case of cashing in on early cloud cover after a good toss to