Joe Root Out LBW as New Zealand Closes in on Victory

Overs50.1

Score188 - 6

Matt Henry to Joe Root, OUT! LBW! Did Root get any bat on it though? He has sent this upstairs. If no bat, this looks stone dead. Nothing on UltraEdge. This could be it. Ball Tracking - Impact in line, hitting leg stump! No century for Root and more importantly, New Zealand have crushed England's hopes of resistance on the 13th ball of the morning.

1

Overs49.6

Score188 - 5

Kyle Jamieson to Joe Root, Edged, but does not carry! Back of a length, seaming away on the off stump line. Joe Root gets slightly squared up and looks to guide it to the off side but gets a thick outside edge. But since he plays with soft hands, the ball dribbles in front of Tom Latham at second slip. He makes a half stop and parries the ball away, allowing the batters to cross for a single.

3

Overs49.2

Score187 - 5

Kyle Jamieson to Jordan Cox, Nicely played, well stopped. Good cricket all around. Fractionally short, outside off, Cox gets on top of the bounce and punches it through the covers. Glenn Phillips gives it a chase from that region, gets to the ball and pushes it back in with a slide. Someone is partnering him, probably someone from gully or backward point and he does the mop up. One saved, three runs taken.

0

Overs48.1

Score182 - 5

Matt Henry to Joe Root, What a start. For someone who has watched the highlights of Day 4, the person would have felt that the highlights have prolonged. What Henry did for the whole of the innings, he starts exactly in the same way. On a length, just outside off, Joe Root looks to defend but the ball nips back in, takes the inside edge and hits the pad. Unrelenting.

All set are we then, to watch some action. A Kiwi fan would want this to end within the next hour. Break this current partnership and you are into the bowlers. An English fan would want the Root masterclass to continue, first a century, then possibly a double. A neutral cricket fan would want good cricketing action. Hoping that it would go till the final hour of the final session would be too much to ask, one guesses, but at least, two fighting ones? Say, England get close to somewhere between 350 and 400?

Weather watch and conditions - June 21st is the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, but can it be a long day for the bowlers? Umm, not likely. Yes, it is set to be a touch hotter than yesterday, nudging into the late twenties with comparatively less cloud cover as well. The pitch has been deteriorating, and there is possibly some spin on offer for the part-timers, and New Zealand have that variety in their attack to exploit what The Oval serves up.

5 wickets away - And now, the Kiwis are just five scalps away from something that has been a long time coming. But England's resistance today will prove the weight of that word 'just'. Their last Test win in England vs England was back in 2021 in Birmingham. Furthermore, their last win at The Oval goes even further back, to 1999, and remarkably, this is also the first time they have played here since. So the history is stacking up, and so is the opportunity to level the series. A very engaging final day beckons at The Oval. The first ball ain't that far now.

Black Caps sense history - The Kiwis have toasted England to good measure with accurate bowling execution with respect to the pitch. They first reduced the Englishmen to 40/3, cutting off any chance of a steady foundation for the chase, and have had a knack for penetrating whenever a partnership has started to look threatening. Kyle Jamieson has been the chief wrecker, standing tall (literally), with his height extracting awkward bounce that has made life uncomfortable for every batter not named Root. Matt Henry and Will O'Rourke have both been equally relentless from either end too. And the responsibility pretty much lies with these blokes to wrap it up as quickly as possible.

Three captains leading from the front - Wait. Three captains? Yes, you read it right. On Saturday, three England (former/stand-in, current and probable future) captains batted at the same time. Root is both Stokes' predecessor and his stand-in this week. Brook is widely seen as the successor. And his cameo was exactly what it always is, breathless and audacious, enough to briefly pull attention away from whatever Stokes was doing around 300 miles north for Durham, who himself was making his case stronger for Trent Bridge. But it is Root who is still out there, unbeaten, and it is Root who gives England every reason to believe in Sunday.

Root, who else? The English batting maestro is at it once again. The Oval gave him a standing ovation when he reached two on day four, the moment he became only the second batter after the great Sachin Tendulkar to cross 14,000 Test runs. That’s a lot of runs and he is hungry for more. He acknowledged calmly and got back to the job. He is only 25 runs away from a 42nd Test hundred, but the number occupying his thoughts right now is 281, that England need to pull off something that has never been done before. And on an up and down surface that has tested most of the batters, including the rookies who were handed one of their toughest assignments, Root has been the one immovable wall.

Into the final day - Greetings, all! Bacon sarnies are on, the kettle is boiled and Sunday is perfectly poised for some cricket. Well, firstly, most of us thought that this game wouldn't get dragged this far, but we love to get proven wrong for all the good reasons. And that's the beauty of Test cricket, isn't it? At once, someone has the upper hand, and check half an hour later, the other is bossing it up. New Zealand have been the dominant side across four of the five days. However, it can’t be denied that England have showed far more toughness in the second innings, but they are still far, far away from turning this over. Hello and welcome to the fifth and final day of the second Test. Grab a cuppa and settle in for this exciting ride.

Sunday's tea at? Umm... let's say, at the players' hotel? Given that only 5 wickets are left in this innings, and 281 runs needed, it genuinely looks like a session more of cricket, nothing more. If any, say, Joe Root manages to get to his century and he and Jordan Cox are unseparated in the opening hour, then maybe, we could have a second session of play on the final day. We don't mean to berate anyone. But with only the bowlers to come after this and the footmarks creating a rough on the pitch, batting will only get difficult. Day 5 is scheduled to start at 10 am GMT on Sunday, 21st June, 2026, but our buildup will begin well in advance. Would we have an exciting day in store? Possibly an exciting finish? Or expect the usual predictions? Join us early to find out. In the meanwhile, you can catch all the action from the Women's T20 World Cup and the T20I series between Bangladesh and Australia. ADIOS! TAKE CARE!

Class is permanent - The top three blown away. Brook starting well, but unable to go on. Rew consumed as well. Only one man, one legend, has stood there like a rock. Joe Root. 75 runs, 137 balls, with 8 classical boundaries. Not too many lucky escapes either, which shows his technique is so supreme. He is probably the only reason why this match has gone into Day 5, else this could have ended on Day 4 itself. The bowling from New Zealand has not been any different to Root, it is just that the maestro has found out a way to bat on this pitch. There are absolutely no demons in it, but still, the ball has done something. It has been no less than a fortune to watch this legend bat and for a cricket fan's sake, let's hope that he enthralls the crowd on Sunday as well.

What went wrong for England? Nothing much, to be honest. They have played positive cricket, and barring the soft dismissals of Emilio Gay and Ben Duckett, the other three have been prized out through disciplined and consistent bowling. It is not as if the batters have been consumed by the target or played poor shots. They have played normal cricket, trusted the true nature of the pitch, but the Black Caps have managed to go through the batters. Kyle Jamieson was the one who struck with the new ball and then, towards the end, got a wonderful review out of Tom Latham to pick up his third. Matt Henry has been as consistent as ever, giving his contribution in the removal of Harry Brook, while Will O'Rourke's bowling figures don't quite do justice to how well he actually bowled.

Boxing match - That's how it has felt like, in this fourth innings. New Zealand pick up three wickets in a small period before Tea. Then, post the break, Harry Brook comes out and plays like the target is to be achieved on Day 4 itself. 62 runs come in the first 8 overs after Tea and the Kiwis are pressed on the back foot. But then, the visitors fight back. First, they build pressure through dots, then get the big wicket of Brook and towards the fag end of the day, dismiss James Rew as well. That's the beauty of Test matches. For long or short periods, one team might be on top, but it just takes a matter of moments to turn things around, especially for the bowling side.

Well played, legend - After that last ball, Kyle Jamieson goes towards one of the all-time greats, Joe Root, and congratulates him, for a wonderful knock thus far. True sportsman spirit, as you can get from any Kiwi. It has been another masterclass from the maestro but this last hour of the final session might have well tilted the game in New Zealand's favour.