As he reached 13,000 Test runs on the opening day of the one-off four-day Test match against Zimbabwe at Nottingham’s Trent Bridge, star batsman Joe Root set opposing milestones. The Yorkshire batsman is the fastest to achieve 13,000 runs in terms of matches played, but he became the slowest batter to reach the milestone by innings.
Needing only 28 more runs to break the record, Stokes achieved this by taking a single off the 80th over from Victor Nyauchi. Reaching an unparalleled mark of 13000 runs for England, he lifted his bat while the cheers exploded at Trent Bridge. Sachin Tendulkar was the fastest to get to 13000 runs in Test cricket, reaching that total in 153 Tests, faster than Jacques Kallis (159), Rahul Dravid (160), Ricky Ponting (162) and the former England captain.
However, the veteran became the slowest to reach that milestone, doing so in 279 innings, surpassing Dravid’s 277 innings. Ponting (275), Kallis (269), and Tendulkar (266) are the other three.
Joe Root departs for 34, but England assert control over Zimbabwe on Day 1 in Nottingham
Towering quickly A blessing Root attempted to pull off the extra bounce created by the right-arm speedster, but Muzarabani prevailed. The Yorkshire batsman had to walk back for 34 off 44 deliveries after Sean Williams made a straightforward catch at fine leg.
Zimbabwe captain Craig Ervine had previously won the toss and chosen to field, taking into account the overhead circumstances. On the field, though, the visitors had a long day as openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley put on a 231-run opening stand and smashed hundreds. Still undefeated at 169, Ollie Pope added 137 with Crawley and 111 with Root.
At Stumps, the home team’s score of 498/3 became the highest in England on the first day of a Test match.
