Root takes charge, guiding England to series whitewash over Pakistan

Birmingham, ENGLAND, Sept 12 - Joe Root guided England to a 3-0 series whitewash over Pakistan with an unbeaten 62, as his side overcame early tremors to win the third test by eight wickets at Edgbaston.

England, chasing a victory target of 130, lost Ben Duckett to the first ball and opening partner Emilio Gay later in the same over from Mohammad Abbas.

But Root, who had a fortunate escape when he was bowled by Mohammad Ali on 23 off a no ball, brought all his experience to bear as England wrapped up their first series win for 19 months.

It was Ali’s 17th no ball of the series.

Pakistan’s last chance came and went when Root, on 38, edged Abbas between first and second slip who both left the ball for each other.

It was Root’s 110th innings of 50 or more in test cricket, a total which includes 41 hundreds.

Pakistan, who conceded a first innings deficit of 320, showed commendable fight to take the game into a fourth day, but with Jordan Cox supplying solid back-up to his captain with an unbeaten 59, England eased to victory in the 25th over.

"Fair play to Pakistan, they threw some punches last night. They made it very difficult for us and in some ways it's a good thing to go through that," said Root.

"Test cricket is not always going to go your own way but to see us actually be quite clinical with the bat off the back of that was good too. So in many ways we're better for it.

"Of course there’s things we will want to improve on but we came into this series with a lot of question marks and a lot of noise around the team and we’ve walked away 3-0 winners so in that respect I’m quite pleased."

If only Pakistan had shown up in the first two tests as they did belatedly in Birmingham this could have been an enthralling series. As it was,