England’s Joe Root celebrates scoring 50 runs in Wellington. (AP Photo)

WELLINGTON: England’s Joe Root etched his name into cricketing history by becoming the first English batter, and only the fourth in the world, to record 100 scores of fifty or more in Test cricket.
The landmark achievement came during the second Test against New Zealand at the Basin Reserve on Saturday, when Root reached his 65th half-century in 76 balls during the third session of the second day’s play.
Playing in his 151st Test match, Root’s remarkable feat places him among some of the game’s greatest players. With 35 centuries and 65 fifties in 276 innings, the 33-year-old has accumulated a staggering 12,853 Test runs.
Root now joins the elite company of Sachin Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis, and Ricky Ponting, who are the only other players to surpass the 100 mark for 50+ scores in Test cricket. Tendulkar holds the record with 119, followed by Kallis and Ponting with 103 each.

Batters with most fifty-plus scores in Test cricket

Root’s achievement comes after a lean patch, where he struggled to find form following an impressive 262-run performance in Multan earlier this year. He endured a seven-innings streak without crossing the 50-run mark before his composed half-century in Wellington, which helped England seize a commanding position in the match.
In addition to his historic 100th 50+ score, Root is now eyeing another significant milestone. With 1,417 Test runs in 2024, he needs just 83 more to become the second player in history to score 1,500 Test runs in multiple calendar years, a feat only Ricky Ponting has achieved, in 2003 and 2005. Root previously crossed the 1,500-run threshold in 2021 during his exceptional run of form.