The unstoppable force: Neither umpire nor opposition can stand in Roy's way during brutal innings

SAM MORSHEAD AT SOPHIA GARDENS: Roy, just like he had run through Wilson, trampled all over Bangladesh as if they were a rural hamlet and he a transnational tarmacing conglomerate

Joel Wilson never stood a chance.

Jason Roy was a rugby player in his youth - a stocky, six-foot, 165-pound bulldozer whose sporting career may well have taken a very different trajectory had he accepted the contract offered to him by Harlequins just over a decade ago - and, in that moment, the beanpole umpire was little more than a tackling bag.

Roy, his eyes fixed to the fielding error at deep square leg which brought him his ninth international century, didn’t clock Wilson in his path. Instant meme territory.

It was a curious way to bring up three figures, but somehow perfectly in keeping with the tone of the innings. Roy, just like he had run through Wilson, had trampled all over Bangladesh as if they were a rural hamlet and he a transnational tarmacing conglomerate.

There had been suggestions in some quarters that nerves might play a part in England’s performance as a result of defeat by Pakistan, but - the early overs aside - they displayed all the timidity of a gaggle of stand-up comedians.

And centre stage was Roy. Imposing, imperious, totally in control.

^{Jason Roy knocks over Joel Wilson}

Roy’s stand-and-deliver batting style, the story goes, comes from arriving in England as a kid and being asked to bat with protective gear for the first time in his life.

Back in South Africa, he would play without shoes, let alone a box, and he had no way to fix in place the borrowed kit for his debut junior innings in this country - for a club side in Surrey.

When he set off for his first run, the box fell out of place. Nine-year-old Roy’s solution? To avoid running altogether and deal primarily in boundaries. A similar ethos - that mixture of self-confidence and disdain for the opposition - has accompanied Roy throughout his career, helping him become one of the most feared opening batsmen in world white-ball cricket,  which is no mean feat in a congested field that includes the likes of Chris Gayle, David Warner, Aaron Finch, Rohit Sharma, Quinton de Kock and Shikhar Dhawan.

It has been quite some journey from those knockabouts in Chipstead.

He ended here with 153, England’s second highest individual score in World Cups, made from 121 balls, a masterpiece of modern one-day batsmanship.

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It was the cornerstone of a mammoth 386 for 6, the sort of total that doesn’t just dampen spirits but holds them under water until they stop kicking.

The innings never seemed possible in its first five overs, as he jumped about his crease skittishly, fidgeting and fumbling like a restless sleeper.

A careless dance down the track and a wild hack at Mashrafe Mortaza, a skew through midwicket which so nearly went to hand, a scratchy start against the left-arm spin of Shakib Al Hasan; early in his innings Roy was as ferocious and threatening as a YouTube kitten montage.

Then, just like that, he changed channel.

A belligerent short-arm pull for four, a couple of comfortable singles, and then the off drive.

Oh, the off drive. For a man of such bulky frame and destructive reputation, Roy’s trademark shot is really quite poetic. A smooth backlift, perfect weight redistribution, emphatic outcome. The highlights reel really ought to be called an anthology.

^{Roy hit a magnificent century against Bangladesh}

He knocked over a member of the groundstaff at long-off with an extraordinary straight six, and continued on his merry way to fifty from 38 balls. That became 100 off 92 as Bangladesh lost their composure in the wake of Roy’s aggression, and quickly conversation around Sophia Gardens began to turn to some famous cricketing numbers - 180, 200, 264.

Could he?

A double-century was most certainly on, and would not have taken a great deal more than strike rotation, but Roy is part of an England side that does not think that way.

What are personal successes if the team does not succeed as a whole?

That is Eoin Morgan mantra. Unity was one of three buzzwords the captain used to describe his squad’s attitudes at this World Cup, and that means self-sacrifice.

Roy found himself on 153, having taken three successive sixes off Mehidy Hasan, but he had to go hard again, even to a ball which did not merit such punishment. The result was a simple catch in the ring, but that didn’t matter.

By now, his job was most definitely, most emphatically done.

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