LONDON: England star batter Joe Root on Saturday crossed 14,000 runs in Test cricket during the second Test against New Zealand at the Oval.
Root reached the landmark with a single in the seventh over of England’s second innings. He became only the second batter in history, after Tendulkar, to achieve the feat.
The right-handed batter achieved the milestone in 302 innings, compared to Tendulkar, who completed it in 279 innings. The 35-year-old trails Sachin Tendulkar by 1921 runs.
Overall, Root has notched up 41 Test hundreds with 66 half-centuries since making his debut against India in 2012.
It took Test cricket 5734 days for another batter to reach the 14,000 run mark after Sachin Tendulkar achieved the milestone in 2010 against Australia.
Most runs in Test cricket
Sachin Tendulkar- 15,921 in 279 innings
Joe Root- 14,000* in 165 innings
Ricky Ponting- 13,378 in 168 innings
Jacques Kallis- 13,289 in 166 innings
Rahul Dravid- 13,288 in 164 innings
England need to record 463 runs to win the series after New Zealand were bowled out for 362 in their second innings on day four of the match.
Henry Nicholls top-scored with 121 while Rachin Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell scored 76 and 68 respectively.
For England, pacers Matthew Fisher and Jofra Archer shared six wickets between them.
It is worth mentioning that the highest fourth-innings total made to win in 149 years of Test history is West Indies’s 418-7 against Australia at St John’s in 2003.
