Joe Root leads England to first-Test victory against New Zealand

A 26th test century from Joe Root has secured a five wicket first-Test victory for England in their three-Test series against New Zealand.

The former England captain finished on 115 not out, becoming the second English cricketer in history, following Alastair Cook, to achieve 10,000 runs in Test cricket. Not only this, but Root achieved this at the exact same age Cook did, both being aged 31 years and 157 days.

On Sunday morning England needed 61 runs to reach their target of 277 with five wickets remaining. This target was quickly achieved within 14 overs, with Root hitting multiple boundaries from deliveries from Kyle Jamieson and Tim Southee.

Despite Root being the star player of this Test, Ben Foakes also put on a strong performance. At one point, three boundaries were hit in just one Southee over. The 147-run partnership between Root and Foakes, who finished play on 32 not out, prevented wicket falls and further sealed the Test victory for England, with the team only achieving one Test win in 17 matches prior.

In contrast, the tourists struggled to make progress on the Test’s final day; not only did they fail to remove the essential wicket of Root but were unable to get a second new ball in time. A second new ball can be requested after 15 overs, but England reached their target before this opportunity arose.

England’s recovery was significant following wickets falling cheaply on Saturday afternoon. England openers Alex Lees and Zak Crawley fell in quick succession. Lees departed on 20 after misjudging a delivery from Jamieson and Crawley fell for just 9 after edging a delivery from Jamieson straight into the hands of Southee, leaving England on 32-2.

New Zealand will certainly display a stronger performance on Thursday in the hopes of equallizing the series

By the 20th over, two more wickets had fallen. Ollie Pope fell for just 10 and Jonny Bairstow became another batsman to fall cheaply to the bowling of Jamieson, leaving England on 69-4.

Shortly after, England narrowly avoided losing Ben Stokes for just 1 after a review of the delivery from Colin de Grandhomme showed it to be a no ball. This resulted in Stokes staying on to score 54, and leaving England at 159-5 on Saturday evening and bringing out Foakes to support Root on-pitch.

Despite a typical batting collapse from England, their performance in the second innings saw an improvement from the first. Following the falls of Lees and Crawley in the first innings, the rest of England’s batsmen struggled to even reach scores in double digits, with Root being the only to do so, with a score of just 11.

This meant that England were all out for a dire 141, despite being in an advantageous position following a stellar bowling and fielding performance which saw them rapidly bowl New Zealand all out for just 132. Despite being infamous for missing opportunities for easy catches, England looked past this and took four out of five slip chances. This was important considering the frequent edging of the ball from New Zealand’s batsmen resulted in a large number of catches for Bairstow and Foakes.

Unlike England’s last test series against the West Indies, England’s two most experienced bowlers, Stuart Broad and James Anderson were included in this line-up. This was a key decision from Stokes in his first Test as England Captain; across both innings, Anderson took six wickets and Broad took four.

Another strong bowling performance came from Test-debutant Matthew Potts who took his first Test wicket within his first over, and going on to take six more wickets in total.

Being one up in the series will give England the boost of confidence needed for the second-Test at Trent Bridge in Thursday, in which New Zealand will certainly display a stronger performance in the hopes of equallizing the series.