Joe Root hit a brilliant unbeaten century to become England’s leading Test run-scorer on day three of the first Test in Multan.
Root (176no) brought up his milestone with a four off Pakistan’s quick Aamer Jamal (1-78), surpassing Sir Alastair Cook’s record of 12,472 runs.
The 33-year-old also notched his 35th Test century to slash Pakistan’s lead from an imposing 460 at the start of play to a far less demanding 64 at stumps.
Root shared a masterful unbroken partnership worth 243-runs with fellow Yorkshireman Harry Brook (141no), who brought up his sixth Test century and fourth against Pakistan, to help England close on 492-3.
It was England’s highest fourth-wicket partnership against Pakistan. The previous was between Paul Collingwood and Cook at Lord’s in 2006.
I’m tired, more than anything. It’s been a long day, Root said at England’s team hotel having been unable to speak to the media at the close due to exhaustion and dehydration.
Obviously, proud but still feel there’s plenty more left to do and many more runs to get. I’m sure I’ll look back at it at some point when I’m finished and be very proud of it.
The Multan wicket forced Pakistan to toil hard for little reward with Zak Crawley (78) departing early in the morning session off Shaheen Shah Afridi (1-88), and Ben Duckett (84), who came in at No 4 after dislocating his thumb at the end of day two, the only other England batter to depart.
Remarkably, the ball hit Brook’s stumps after ricocheting off his chest without dislodging the bails in the 76th over granting him an extra life, and despite cramping up in the hot and humid conditions, the 25-year-old still managed to tally 12 boundaries and one six during his 173-ball outing.
Naseem Shah (1-87) hit Root on his pads late in the evening session but on-field umpire Kumar Dharmasena ruled it was not out and ball-tracking showed it was clipping the bails on review, adding to Pakistan’s agonising day in the field with the England record-breaker hobbling for runs in the final moments of day three.
Crawley began day three positively carving Afridi’s third ball through the covers for four.
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