HERO ROOT Joe will lead run chase
SKIPPER Ben Stokes celebrated his 31st birthday with a belligerent 54 and former captain Joe Root is still out there as England set course for a stunning victory over New Zealand.
If England win the 1st LV= Insurance Test today, Stokes’ knock will go down as the turning point – with Root ready to lead the run chase for victory.
Set 277 to win, Stokes marched to the crease with England in disarray at 69-4 and batted like he really meant it.
Closing on 216-5, they still need another 61 – but Root is 77 not out after four hours and 20 minutes of exemplary application.
Stuart Broad, whose ‘hat-trick’ in the first session had begun England’s memorable fightback, said: “I think Ben is at his best when he has the game on the line.
“That’s always the sign of a world-class player and a worldclass character. He’s played some incredible knocks in the first innings of Test matches before, but he’s a situation player – it suits him when it’s laid out in front of him.
“It would be right up there if we could get over the line. Going to bed last night, it felt like we had let them get a bit too far away from us.
“We will need a positive mindset to finish the job, but the way Rooty and Stokesy played today showed how this team wants to go about it.”
If England can go 1-0 up,
Stokes will feel like all his birthdays have come at once. Big Ben had scored only one when was castled by Colin de Grandhomme, slogging indiscriminately, and he was halfway back to the pavilion before he was reprieved by a marginal no-ball call.
But he deposited Ajaz Patel’s left-arm spin dismissively into the grandstand for three sixes, and just as Stokes was threatening to turn 142 minutes of mercurial defiance
nto match-winning violence, he
as bounced out by all-rounder yle Jamieson (4-59), gloving an ttempted upper-cut to Kiwis eeper Tom Blundell.
Stokes left Root to carry on the ood work – and so far England’s
est batsman has played another linder.
In what has been a thrilling match England started to see hings go their way in the morning
ession, when they took three wickets in three balls to spark a New Zealand collapse of 6-34.
Daryl Mitchell completed a century, but after he was out for 108 and Tom Blundell for 96, the Black Caps were dismissed for 285.
The England chase gave us the usual ups and downs we have come to expect, leaving the prospect of a grandstand conclusion on the fourth morning – with Root ready to shine.