Pope and Root were heroes for England on the third day
What turned out to be an astonishing day of Test cricket for England, Joe Root And Ollie Pope scored a century to take England to 473/5 at the end of 3 days. The home team is now only 80 runs behind New Zealand’s first innings score of 553.
These are some of the batting performances by England who were ruled out of this Test match after a monstrous batting performance by the Kiwis in the first two days of the Test.
Root, who is currently the world’s most in-form batsman in Test cricket, was still at stumps for an unbeaten 163, giving England hope to come out of the first innings with an unexpected lead.
While Root is used to compiling centuries – it was his fourth in his last five Tests and 27th of his career – Pope reached three figures for the second time in four years in the England team and the first time at home .
Pope’s 145 beat his previous best score, an unbeaten 135 against South Africa in January 2020, and justified England’s new leadership’s decision to promote him to No. 3 for this international summer.
Alex Lees (67) and Ben Stokes (46) played crucial innings and Ben Fox was dismissed for 24 not out with Root, with England trailing 80.
If Root can continue the good work he’s doing, and Ben Fox keeps going, we may have a result on our hands. England are currently 1-0 up in the series on Day 5.