Root and Cox Lead England to Series Victory with Edgbaston Chase

For a few breathless minutes at Edgbaston, England’s chase of 130 looked like it might unravel before it had even begun. By the end, Joe Root and Jordan Cox were walking off to warm applause, unbeaten, unflustered and with a 3-0 series win over Pakistan wrapped up by eight wickets.

The journey between those two points was anything but straightforward.

A Horror Start

The first ball of the day set the tone for Pakistan’s early surge. Ben Duckett, pushing tentatively at Mohammad Abbas, nicked off to the keeper. One ball, one wicket, nerves crackling around the ground.

Abbas went again. This time Emilio Gay didn’t survive either, pinned lbw in the same over. England 2 for 2. A target of 130 suddenly felt a lot bigger. Pakistan, buoyed by the late-order resistance from debutant Razaullah on the third evening, could smell something improbable.

For England, this was supposed to be a routine close-out. Instead, they were staring at a potential collapse.

Pakistan’s Missed Moment

Razaullah, the catalyst with the bat the previous night, was handed the ball with a real chance to tilt the match further. He couldn’t find the same control. His opening overs bled runs, releasing the pressure that Abbas had built and forcing Pakistan into an early rethink.

The switch to Mohammad Ali almost produced the decisive blow. He went straight through Root, the off stump flattened, Pakistan celebrating what looked like the wicket they craved. Then came the twist: the umpire checked the front foot. Overstepped. No ball. Root recalled.

One ball later, Root drove crisply to the rope. Statement shot. Cox followed suit in the next over, threading his own boundary, and the mood of the morning shifted. The panic of 2 for 2 started to feel like a different match.

Pakistan still had chances. Abbas again found Root’s outside edge, a regulation slip catch in most scorebooks. This time, neither first nor second slip moved. The ball flew between them, untouched. In a chase this small, those are the moments that define a day.

The pressure they had worked so hard to create evaporated.

Root Takes Charge, Cox Grows

Once Root rode out that storm, he settled into familiar command. The target, never huge, now looked well within his control. England did not need to rush; the lack of scoreboard pressure allowed Root to pick his moments, nudging, driving, and punishing anything loose.

As the runs ticked along, a personal milestone arrived. Root reached fifty with another boundary, moving past the record for the most half-centuries in Test cricket. It felt fitting that such a landmark came in an innings that demanded calm rather than fireworks, composure rather than bravado.

At the other end, Cox quietly turned opportunity into substance. Given a genuine chance in a pressure chase, he grew with every over. Early on, he was content to follow Root’s lead. Then his own strokes began to carry more authority, his footwork more certainty. He too reached a half-century, a significant marker in an unbroken partnership that shut Pakistan out of the contest.

By the time England closed in on the target, the early chaos had been reduced to a footnote. The pair had added a century stand without being parted, draining the life from Pakistan’s attack and their hopes of a famous comeback.

The winning runs came on the stroke of lunch, the crowd rising as Root and Cox walked off unbeaten, the series sealed at 3-0. A chase that had flirted with disaster ended with a stroll, and with it another reminder: give Root a second chance, and he rarely wastes it.