Root awards club batsman after matchwinning knock

Joe Root went back to his roots over the weekend by paying a surprise visit to Abbeydale Sports Club in Yorkshire, where he handed over a signed pair of his batting gloves to the man of the match in a South Yorkshire Cricket League Division Four fixture.

Root, who played for Sheffield Collegiate as a kid, had his fiancée Carrie and their young son, Alfred, alongside him as he watched his father, Matt, play for Sheffield Collegiate Third XI against Handsworth Junior Sporting Club.

Unfortunately for Root senior, he made just 8 in a total of 119 all out, after Collegiate had been batted out of contention by Handsworth's wicketkeeper-batsman, Ashley Naseby, who made 124 out of a total of 187.

"Matthew had definitely raided Joe's garage," Dean Williamson, Handsworth's captain, told The Telegraph. "He had all the kit, all the sponsored this and that and the bats.

"We saw Joe had come to watch. He was with his missus and his young 'un so we didn't want to bother him too much, but he was really nice."

Naseby, who made another hundred in a Sunday fixture a week earlier, said he had raised the idea of a bonus man-of-the-match award while keeping wicket during Matt's brief innings.

"His father is the dead spit of him, Joe Root in wicketkeeping gloves," he said. "When Matthew was batting later I was joking to him that 'the man of the match should get some of Joe's batting gear'.

"I will probably keep them somewhere safe and sound. I've got a nice matching pair of GM gloves at the moment so I won't change them."