Joe Root, on Sunday, played one of the best knocks of his illustrious Test career to power England to a stunning victory over New Zealand in the first Test at the iconic Lord’s.
The match was finely poised when action started on day 4 of the game started. Chasing 277 to take a lead in the series, England started the proceedings on 216 for 5 with Root and Ben Foakes fighting it out for the hosts.
Earlier in their second innings, England had started poorly with the bat. New Zealand had them reeling at 69 for 4 and were well on top. Root, however, stood firm and dashed the visitors’ hopes of capitalising on the strong position.
He and skipper Ben Stokes steadied the ship by adding 90 runs for the fifth wicket. The partnership ended when Kyle Jamieson dismissed Stokes for 54. That was the last wicket taken by New Zealand in the game as Root and Foakes shared an unbeaten match-winning stand after that.
New Zealand’s hopes of taking early wickets on day 4 were dashed by Root and Foakes as they eventually took their team over the finishing line without much trouble. The two shared an unbeaten stand of 110 runs for the sixth wicket. Root remained unbeaten on 115 off 170 balls while Foakes scored 32.
Joe Root equals Alastair Cook’s record:
The stunning match-winning knock from Joe Root also helped him achieve a major record. His 26th Test ton helped him become only the second England batsman to score 10000 runs in the longest format of the game.
Root also became the joint youngest batsman in the history of the game to breach the 10000-run mark in Test. He is now the joint holder of the record along with his former teammate Alastair Cook who had broken legendary Sachin Tendulkar’s record.
Root has achieved the feat at age of 31 years and 157 days. Tendulkar, on the other hand, was 31 years and 326 days old when he scored his 10000th run in Tests.
