England talisman Joe Root registered his name in the history books after he surpassed the great Sachin Tendulkar in the list of batters with the most number of runs in the 4th innings of Test cricket. Root claimed the No. 1 spot in the first Test against New Zealand which England won handsomely by 8 wickets. Root didn't quite get going when he first got the opportunity to bat and was dismissed for a duck. However, he did better on the second occasion, scoring 23 runs off 15 balls while remaining unbeaten.
Before the start of the match, Tendulkar held the record of scoring the most number of runs in the 4th innings of the Test, having scored 1625 runs in his career. However, Root now has 1630 runs to his name in the 4th innings of Tests. He also surpassed Alistair Cook within the same innings, with the former English captain having ended his career just 14 runs short of Tendulkar on 1611 runs. Root currently stands at 1630 runs scored in fourth innings of Test matches.
The rest of the top five is filled out by Graeme Smith, tied with his southpaw captain counterpart Cook on 1611, and finally another southpaw in West Indian Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who scored 1580 fourth innings runs for the Windies.
England wrapped up a comfortable win over New Zealand with Root’s innings as the cherry on top, successfully taking a 1-0 lead thanks to a century from Harry Brook, who continues to impress, as well as a ten-wicket performance from Brydon Carse, who became the first English bowler to register a 10-fer overseas since 2008.
