CHRISTCHURCH: England’s experienced batter Joe Root continued to make waves in Test cricket as he surpassed Sachin Tendulkar to become the player with most runs in the fourth innings of the format.
Root achieved the milestone during England’s eight-wicket victory over New Zealand in the first Test of the three-match series here at Hagley Oval.
The right-handed batter scored a brisk 22 not out, which was enough to sail him past compatriot Alastair Cook and India’s batting great Tendulkar.
Root now has 1630 fourth-innings runs, five more than Tendulkar’s tally of 1625.
Most fourth-innings runs in Tests
Joe Root – 1630 runs* in 49 innings
Sachin Tendulkar – 1625 runs in 60 innings
Graeme Smith – 1611 runs in 41 innings
Alastair Cook – 1611 runs in 53 innings
Shivnarine Chanderpaul – 1580 runs in 49 innings
His fourth-innings tally features two centuries and eight half-centuries, with 620 runs coming in victories. From the aforementioned list of batters, only Smith has thousand-plus fourth-innings runs in winning cause.
For the unversed, Root is chasing Tendulkar’s record of all-time leading run-scorer in Tests and is only 3144 runs behind.
He is fifth on the list of batters with most Test runs, only behind Tendulkar, Australia’s Ricky Ponting, South Africa’s Jacques Kallis and India’s Rahul Dravid.
Most runs in Test cricket
Sachin Tendulkar (India) — 15921
Ricky Ponting (Australia) — 13378
Jacques Kallis (South Africa) — 13289
Rahul Dravid (India) — 13288
Joe Root (England) — 12777
- Joe Root
- Sachin Tendulkar
