Ashley Giles praises England Lions captain Joe Root

Ashley Giles was impressed with the performance of Joe Root after the Yorkshireman's marathon knock in England Lions' draw with New Zealand in Leicester.

Captain Root batted for six-and-a-quarter hours as he made 179 to take his first-class tally to 646 runs for the season, keeping the tourists on the back foot ahead of the first Test at Lord's.

Giles, England's limited-overs coach and the match manager at Grace Road, said: "We talked about grinding them down, and we did.

"It's great. Joe works very hard, and very specifically as well, and he's worked his game out.

"We still need to be guarded on how much we build the lad up - he's only played a few Tests - but so far so good."

Giles could reflect with satisfaction after the Lions had put a poor first day behind them.

"We're very thorough in our pre-match plans to batsmen, and we just didn't get it right the first day," he said.

"They were really difficult conditions. That gale was tough, but that's what you're going to have to put up with in Test cricket at times.

"But it was great for us to see those four big lads operate together, and certainly when they came back on day two and took seven for 101 it was a good performance.

"Then even more pleasing was the way we went about it with the bat.

"I thought Boult bowled really well in this game, so they did really well to come through some of those periods."

New Zealand paceman Tim Southee has had scans on his sore foot, but the tourists are awaiting more results to determine whether he is likely to be a doubt for the first Test.