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Joe Root’s record century in the second Test against New Zealand helped England seal a 323-run victory, while he equaled Rahul Dravid’s record of 36 Test centuries and joined an exclusive group with 100+ scores of fifty or more in Test cricket.
New Delhi: On Day 3 of the second Test, Joe Root celebrated his record century with an audacious reverse-scoop shot, and England went on to record a dominant 323-run victory over New Zealand. England won the series at Basin Reserve in Wellington on December 8.
On the first ball of the 83rd over, Joe Root played a reverse-scoop shot off William O’Rourke, which sent the ball over New Zealand wicketkeeper Tom Blundell’s head and the slips cordon for a boundary. This shot brought him to three figures from 127 balls in the Wellington Test.
However, Joe Root was dismissed for 106 off 130 balls, caught behind off Will O’Rourke, just three balls after reaching his record century in the second Test match between England and New Zealand at the Basin Reserve in Wellington. Though he was dismissed, his century played a key role in helping England seal the game and win the Test series. This was Root’s 36th Test century, achieved in his 151st match.
With this century, Joe Root equaled Rahul Dravid’s record of 36 Test centuries, placing both players in 5th position on the all-time list for most centuries in Test cricket. The top spot is held by the legendary Sachin Tendulkar (51), followed by Jacques Kallis (45), Ricky Ponting (41), and Kumar Sangakkara (38).
The former England captain also matched Rahul Dravid’s record for the most Test centuries against New Zealand, with both players now having six centuries against this opposition.
South African legend Jacques Kallis also has six Test centuries to his name against New Zealand, while Pakistani great Javed Miandad holds the top spot with seven Test hundreds against the Kiwis.
He had also scored six Test centuries in 2021. Root now becomes the only English player to achieve this feat twice and one of only three players globally to do so, alongside Ricky Ponting and Steve Smith. Mohammad Yousuf holds the record for the most Test centuries in a calendar year, with nine.
Additionally, Root becomes the first England batter and only the fourth player in the world to record 100 scores of fifty or more in Test cricket. He joins an exclusive group, including Sachin Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis, and Ricky Ponting, as the only cricketers to surpass the 100 mark for 50+ scores in Test cricket.
Legendary Indian batter Sachin Tendulkar leads the chart of fifty-plus scores with 119 such innings, followed by Jacques Kallis and Ricky Ponting, both with 103. Root, at 33 years old, has accumulated 12,853 runs in Test cricket, with 35 centuries and 65 fifties from 276 innings.
With 1,417 Test runs in 2024, Joe Root is just 83 runs away from becoming the second player in history to score 1,500 Test runs in multiple calendar years. The only other player to achieve this feat is Ricky Ponting, who accomplished it in 2003 and 2005. Root had previously surpassed the 1,500-run mark in 2021 during a remarkable run of form.
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