Daily Mail

ROOT’S SO NIFTY TO FIFTY

- LAWRENCE BOOTH AT OLD TRAFFORD

JOE ROOT’S 52 meant he has now scored at least one half-century in each of his last 10 Tests, equalling John Edrich’s England record. It also made him the 22nd England batsman to pass 5,000 Test runs, though only four of those — Wally Hammond, Len Hutton, Ken Barrington and Jack Hobbs — have a higher average than Root’s 53. But Root has now converted only four of his last 21 Test half-centuries into hundreds. AT 26 years 217 days, Root is the thirdyoung­est Test batsman to reach 5,000 runs. Only Sachin Tendulkar (25 years 301 days) and Alastair Cook (26 years 10 days) beat him to it. KEATON JENNINGS’ dismissal for 17, caught behind off Duanne Olivier, took his Test record this summer to an underwhelm­ing 109 runs at an average of 15 — a tailender’s figures. WHEN Quinton de Kock dived to catch Tom Westley off Kagiso Rabada, he became the secondfast­est keeper to 100 Test dismissals — one game behind Adam Gilchrist’s 22 and level with Mark Boucher.

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