With a magnificent unbeaten 26th Test century, Joe Root led England to a comfortable five-wicket win to take a 1-0 lead in the three-Test series against world champions New Zealand.
At start of play on the fourth day with England resuming their second innings on 216 for five and in need of a further 61 for victory, New Zealand, bowling in overcast conditions might have somewhat fancied their chances.
But the calmness and control that Root and Ben Foakes displayed, ensured that the tourists would struggle for wickets they so urgently needed. Root, on 77 overnight and Foakes on 9, went about their task watchfully but missed no chances of keeping the scoreboard moving. They went for singles and twos when the opportunity was there and waited for the loose balls – there weren’t many – to hit fours.
Speaking of fours, the finest from Foakes was the one he guided between point and backward square leg off Kyle Jamieson, who was brought early into the attack after just one over after his excellent spell the previous day when he had four of the five England wickets that had fallen. The shot from Foakes took England to 235 for 5. He soon followed it with a powerful drive to the long-on off the same bowler to get to 22.
England scored 27 in the first half hour and were batting with increased confidence. Root got into the nineties with a beautiful square drive for 4 off Jamieson but his next four went behind off the bottom edge, luckily missing the stumps, it took him to 96.
After two singles, the second of which brought up the hundred of the sixth wicket partnership, Root clipped a shot to mid-wicket for two to reach three figures and became the 14th batsman to reach 10,000 Test runs and the second Englishman to do so, after Alastair Cook.
Foakes, who had given the former England captain excellent support in the partnership had meanwhile progressed to 32 from 92 balls. Roots last two scoring shots went for fours, the first, a drive to mid-off, took him to 111 and England to 275 for five.
Finally came the match-winning shot as Root pulled Tim Southee to the mid-wicket boundary. His unbeaten 115 came from 170 balls in two minutes under five-and-a half hours at the crease.
Root said : “It feels good for us to win a Test match. It feels like such a long time. Great to start strongly under Ben (Stokes) and Brandon (McCullum, coach) and a great chance for us to kick on. It feels like it should be in many ways. There’s things we did through the pandemic to keep the game going, it feels good to have it back to how it should be.”
He added: “It was quite emotional, to be honest with you. It was very special. A lot of people will talk about my personal performances, run-wise, but its never enjoyable when you are losing. For us to start like this under Ben’s leadership, it’s a really exciting time.”
SCOREBOARD
New Zealand 1st Innings 132
England 1st Innings 141
New Zealand 2nd Innings 285
England 2nd Innings
A Lees b Jamieson 20
Z Crawley c Southee b Jamieson 9
O Pope b Boult 10
J Root not out 115
J Bairstow b Jamieson 16
B Stokes c Blundell b Jamieson 54
B Foakes not out 32
Extras (b6, lb9, nb2, w6) 23
Total (5 wkts, 78.5 overs) 279
Fall of wickets: 1-31, 2-32, 3-46, 4-69, 5-159
Bowling: Southee 23.5-5-87-0; Boult 24-3-73-1, Jamieson 25-4-79-4, De Grandhomme 3.5-1-3-0, Mitchell 0.1-0-0-0, Patel 2-0-22-0
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