England set about chasing New Zealand’s first innings with an abandon not seen for several years in Tests
Nobody was having a better time than Root himself. The temptation will simply be to file his 28th Test century away with all the others: the latest entry in an infinite scroll of excellence. But there was something different about this innings, a madness to his method.
It was his fastest Test century, a riotous mickey-take of an innings, laced with all the freedom and frivolity we associated with him in his younger, pre-captaincy days. Never again will he endure a sleepless night over some insoluble selection dilemma. Never again will he have to front up at the end of another crushing series defeat to insist his team showed “lots of character”.
Of course, this was a gorgeous featherbed of a surface, the same surface upon which New Zealand had so comfortably plundered 553. But go back through the history of this side and a favourable pitch has rarely been a guarantee of very much at all. There are few sides in world cricket more adept at getting bowled out for 250 on a 450 pitch: Sydney and Adelaide on the last two Ashes tours, Old Trafford in 2019, Visakhapatnam and Centurion in 2016.
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