Former England Joe Root registered his 26th Test hundred to guide his side to a five-wicket win on Day 4 of the first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s on Sunday.
With England 16 away from their 277-run target, Root flicked one off Tim Southee to get to the three-figure mark – a shot which also got him to 10,000 runs in Test cricket. Root became the 14th Test cricketer to achieve the milestone and the second Englishman after his former skipper Sir Alastair Cook.
An over later, he would take three fours off Southee, and the last of the lot – a controlled pull towards mid-wicket – completed England’s five-wicket win. It was the third-highest successful chase at Lord’s, after West Indies gunned down 342 by nine wickets in 1984, and England themselves chased 282 against the Kiwis in 2004.
Root’s unbeaten 115 was only the third match-winning hundred in the fourth innings of a Lord’s Test, after Gordon Greenidge (214*) and Nasser Hussain (103*) did so in the aforementioned Tests, respectively.
The Ex-England captain was ably supported by wicketkeeper Ben Foakes, who scored a disciplined 32* in a 120-run unbroken stand for the sixth wicket, 63 of which came on the final day.
It has been quite a start to the English Test summer for the hosts, under a new Ben Stokes-Brendon McCullum era. England endured a tough start over the last one-and-a-half-year period, having lost four of their last five Test series, with the remaining one, in which they trail 1-2 against India, scheduled to be completed next month.
England had New Zealand bundled out for 132 on Day 1, with veteran James Anderson and debutant Matthew Potts bagging four-fers each. However, the current World Test Championship holders bounced back strongly, bundling the hosts, who were 59/0 at one point, for 141, to secure a nine-run lead, with Southee (4/55) and Trent Boult (3/21) leading the way.
The Blackcaps found themselves precariously placed at 56/4 in the second dig too, with Potts having dismissed Kane Williamson for the second time in the Test.
The tide turned yet again as Daryl Mitchell registered a brilliant fighting hundred in support of Tom Blundell (96) to revive the side’s hopes with a 195-run stand. However, the former’s dismissal triggered a bizarre collapse from 251/4 to 285 all-out to put the game back in the balance.
Kyle Jamieson rattled England’s top-order after a promising start, with the hosts being reduced from 31/0 to 69/4. It could have been 76/5, with Stokes being castled by Colin de Grandhomme’s gentle medium pace for a single, before replays suggesting that the bowler had overstepped, giving the all-rounder a reprieve.
Stokes featured in another slightly fortuitous and a slightly freaky moment later in the day, with an attempted throw towards the non-striker’s end deflecting off his bat, uncannily similar to happenings of the thrilling last over of the World Cup 2019 final at the same venue. This time though, the ball didn’t ricochet to the boundary, and there were smiles from New Zealand fielders, Root and Stokes himself.
The England captain would score a crucial 54, adding 90 with Root for the fifth wicket to put the chase back on track. Stokes’ innings was highlighted by his brilliant counterattack against left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel, who was smashed for three sixes in the only two overs he bowled.
Jamieson bounced out Stokes to revive New Zealand’s hopes, but Root and Foakes stood firm in the final hour of the third day’s play and later on the fourth morning to secure England’s 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Brief scores
New Zealand 132 (De Grandhomme 42*, Potts 4/13)
England 141 (Crawley 43, Southee 4/55)
New Zealand 285 (Mitchell 108, Blundell 96, Potts 3/55)
England 279/5 (Root 115*, Jamieson 4/79) win by five wickets
