Star Batter Joe Root became the first England batter to have 100 50+ scores in Test Cricket. Root accomplished this milestone during the second test of England’s tour of New Zealand 2024 at Wellington.
After a failure in the first innings, Root smashed 73* runs in 106 balls with five fours which becomes his 100th fifty-plus score in Tests which also includes 35 centuries besides 65 fifties.
Sachin Tendulkar has most fifty-plus scores (119) in tests, which also includes 51 centuries. He is followed by South Africa’s Jacques Kallis (103) and Ricky Ponting (103) fifties in his career.
Coming to the match, England batted first where they were reduced to 4/43. A counter-attacking century from Harry Brook and a half century from Ollie Pope took England to 280/10 in 55 overs.
Brook and Pope put up a 174 run partnership for the fifth wicket. Nathan Smith (4/86) was the pick of the bowlers for kiwis, while Will O’Rourke also took 3/49.
ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOT! pic.twitter.com/NtOfTJV9q6
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) December 7, 2024
In the first innings, Kiwis could muster only 125 runs as Gus Atkinson’s four wicket haul (4/31) and Brydon Carse (4/46) totally demolished New Zealand.
Fast Bowler Gus Atkinson secured a sensational hat-trick on Saturday dismantling Kiwi’s lower order and setting a dominant stance for England.
Gus Atkinson was the 15th England bowler and the first since Moeen Ali against South Africa in 2017 to complete a test hat-trick. He dismissed Nathan Smith (14), Matt Henry (0) and Tim Southee (0) in back-to-back deliveries to complete a memorable hat-trick.
Kane Williamson was the only played to reach 20-run mark as he smashed 37 runs in 56 balls and trailed by 155 runs.
Meanwhile, England has taken a unfathomable 533 run lead, scoring 378/5 at the end of the second day. Half centuries came from Ben Duckett (92 runs in 112 balls), Jacob Bethell (96 runs in 118 balls), Harry Brook (55 runs in 61 balls) and Joe Root (73* runs in 106 balls).
The right handed batter managed to cross 1500 run mark in 2024 and becomes the second player after Ricky Ponting to score 1500 Test runs in a calendar year on multiple occasions.
