Joe Root celebrated a timely return to form with a double century in Hamilton on Monday as England forged a 101-run lea♑d over New Zealand on the fourth day of the second Test.
The England captain reached the milestone with a 🦂risky single with batting partner Ollie Pope slow off the mark and only keeping his wicket when the throw at the stumps went wide.
A sheepish Root apologized to Pope for nearly burning him𒉰 before taking his helmet off and raising his bat to the crowd.
By 🥀reaching his double ton, Root became tꦜhe first visiting captain to ever score a 200 in New Zealand.
Joe Root now becomes the first visiting Test captain 💜to score a double century in New Zealan⛎d.
— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman)
In the Hamilton Test, Root came out to bat after England found themselves in a tricky position, having lost two wickets within the first ten overs. Root, alongside Rory Burns (101), stabilized the visitors’ innings before putting them in a commanding position.
Ollie Pope (75) forged another important partnership with Root, steering England to lead in the first innings. Root was eventually dismissed on 22💙6 by Mitchell Santner.
Joe Root doubters right now
— England's Barmy Army 🏴🎺 (@TheBarmyArmy)
Root surpassed the West Indies opener Chris Gayle (197) to register the highest score by a visiting captain in New Zealand. He is now the fourth England captain to score a double hundred in an overseas Test. Len Hutton (205, in Kingston 1954), Ted Dexter (205, in Karachi 1962) and Alastair Cook (263, in Abu Dhabi 2015) h🍎ave scored double-tons for England as captai🥀ns.
Among the English batsmen, Graham Thorpe was the last batsman to score a double century in Nౠew Zealand. He remained unbeaten on 200 in Christchurch in 2002.
Overall, it𒀰 w💛as the first double-century in New Zealand by an overseas player since Shakib Al Hasan slammed 217 in Wellington in January 2017.
Here’s how Twitter reacted:
No Englishmaཧn in Test history has as many runs *and* a higher average tha𓆉n Joe Root.
— The CricViz Analyst (@cricvizanalyst)
//twitter.com/DennisCricket_/s🌼tatus/1201340724500811🐟776
YEEEEESSS !! 2️⃣0️⃣0️⃣
Scorecard:
— England Cricket (@englandcricket)
Joe Root's double ton propels England to take the first-innings lead over New Zealand
— betvisa68.com (@CricketTimesHQ)
//t༺witter.com/TanujKumarSin17/status/1201354889093402624
Highest test score by a𝐆 captain against New Zealand:
Joe Root – 226.
Sachin Tendulkar – 217.
Virat Kohli – 211.
Allan Border – 205.
Hanif Mohammed – 203*.
Chris Gayle – 197.— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra)
Joe Root has his third Tes🅷t double hundred! What an innings by th🐷e England captain! VS NZ
— Muhammad Noman (@Nomancricket29)
Joe🀅 Root took the ICC rankings seriously and played a extremely gorgeous innings 👏
— Santosh Chaurasia (@ChaurasiaVi23)
💥 Third double ton in Tests for Joe Root 💥
🅘Lo✤oks like the England captain has got his rhythm back!
— ICC (@ICC)
Sleeping through a test like this is always extremely frustrating but take a bow Joe Root! Silencing a few critics in the process too… 👀
— Claire Cottingham (@Cla_Cottingham)
