Ashes 2015: Joe Root smashes superb century but Australia make late gains on the first day

At 12.22 today, barely an hour after the Ashes had begun, the fate of the session, the day, the match, perhaps the whole shebang might have been altered. It was then that Joe Root, on whom the hopes of much of the nation are resting, jammed his bat down late on a fast ball from Mitchell Starc of Australia.