England lead New Zealand by 339 runs going into final day of second Test as Joe Root scores seventh 50 of winter
Tourists go into final day of Test cricket this winter with a bumper lead at Hagley Oval – but Root failed to convert a 50 into a century again with England needing a win to level the series
JOE ROOT scored his seventh Test fifty of the winter – but he has not converted any of them into a century.
England captain Root was helping set up a declaration in the Second Test, a match his team have to win to level the series.
Root scored 54 as England reached 352-9 declared in their second innings and challenged New Zealand to score 382 to win.
It looked a tough target and became even tougher when 24 overs were lost to bad light at the end of day four.
Openers Tom Latham and Jeet Raval were not separated and the Kiwis finished with 42-0 after 23 overs.
With lost time being made up, there is a potential 98 overs to be bowled on the final day of England’s marathon tour.
England might have taken a wicket but James Vince, diving to his left at third slip, failed to cling onto an edge offered by Latham on 23 off James Anderson.
Root’s half-century means he has now passed fifty on 52 occasions in Test cricket and gone on to three figures just 13 times.
That is a ratio of one-in-four and his inability to convert his fifties into hundreds remains a big mystery.
And nobody is more frustrated about it than Root himself.
It is one of the reasons why Root is regarded as half-a-rung below the likes of Virat Kohli and somebody called Steve Smith on the world batting ladder.
Root was one of four batsmen to record a half-century in England’s second innings but they never dominated the Blackcaps bowlers.
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Root perished when he edged a catch behind just two deliveries after Dawid Malan had clipped a catch to mid-wicket.
With Ben Stokes making just 12 – he also clipped a catch to mid-wicket – England never had the firepower to score quick runs and allow Root to declare earlier.
Jonny Bairstow whacked a few boundaries in the closing overs of innings after he had been given not out to a catch behind that TV replays showed he had edged.