League: Cricket
England‘s legendary batter Joe Root registered his 32nd Test hundred on Day 4 of the second Test against West Indies at Trent Bridge, Nottingham. The former England captain achieved this milestone in the second session of the day with a gorgeous drive through the deep point, celebrating by punching the air in delight. This century placed Root on par with legendary Australia captain Steve Waugh and his contemporaries Steve Smith and Kane Williamson in the all-time list of hundreds in the longest format. Root is now just one century away from equalling Alastair Cook‘s record of 33 Test hundreds, the most for England.
Root came to the crease after England lost Ollie Pope, who scored 51, with the team at 127. He immediately made an impact with a boundary on his sixth delivery against Jayden Seales. Root then continued to rotate the strike and stabilize the innings alongside Harry Brook.
The pair took their team to the stumps on Day 3 without losing any more wickets. Resuming his innings on Day 4 from 37, Root received an early reprieve when an outside edge flew but didn’t carry to the third man fielder. He brought up his 63rd half-century off 91 balls in the first session, rising to third on the list of most half-centuries in Tests, behind Sachin Tendulkar (68) and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (66).
During his innings, Root surpassed Chanderpaul’s tally of 11,867 runs in the list of highest run-scorers in Test cricket. He also registered his sixth Test hundred against West Indies, equalling the records of Cook, Andrew Strauss, Allan Lamb and Colin Cowdrey. This was Root’s fifth Test century at Trent Bridge, putting him level with Mike Atherton and Denis Compton. Root’s solid knock was instrumental in England scoring over 400 runs in both innings of a Test match for the first time in history. England finished their second innings at 425, setting a daunting 385-run target for West Indies.