Magnificent Brook, steady Root put England in command in 2nd Test against Kiwis

Harry Brook made 184 and Joe Root 101 in an unbroken fourthwicket partnership of 294 which carried England to 3153 at stumps Friday on the rainshortened first day of the second cricket test against New ZealandA day which began without promise with a lost toss and three early wickets ended after only 65 overs and after a parade of records and milestones which saw England take almost unbreakable control of the match and seriesBrooks score was his highest in tests beating his 153 against Pakistan in December and was his fourth century in his last five tests He also has three half centuries and now has 807 runs from only nine test innings more than any other player in the history of Test cricket at that point in their careersBehind him now are players such as Henry Sutcliff Everton Weekes Frank Worrell and Sunil Gavaskar His score already is the highest by an England batsman in WellingtonBrook said he went to the crease with England 213 with just the usual mindset just the way Ive been playing the whole time Ive been playing test cricket to be honestI looked to put pressure on the bowler and be as positive as possible he said I did change a few little things but the more positive you are generally the more you get away withRoot has his 29th Test century completing the milestone a moment before the rain began The partnership between Yorkshiremen now is Englands highest for the fourth wicket against New ZealandEngland reinforced the superiority over New Zealand the visitors showed in the first test which they won by 267 runs and they now look likely to become the first team to beat New Zealand in a test series at home for six yearsBrook was man in the match for his scores of 89 and 54 in the first test both of which were made at better than a run a ball and helped take that match away from New ZealandThe home team had only a few days to regroup from that mauling and were reinforced Friday by the return of fast bowler Matt Henry and batsman Will Young while England happily named an unchanged sideNew Zealand would have been happy when it won the toss and bowled first more so when Henry and Tim South had early success and England stumbled to 213 in less than seven oversThen came Brook and once again the match was transformed His first half century was sedate by his standards coming from 51 balls and his century came from 107 deliveries the second 50 from 56 balls He then went on to 150 from 145 balls having stepping up his and Englands scoring The third half century needed only 38 balls and was a trial for New Zealand who saw the match slipping awayNew Zealand had taken the risk of playing with an extra batsman perhaps motivated by the dual failure of their top order in the first test That left them with the allrounder Daryl Mitchell as their third seamer bowling relatively unthreatening medium paceAnd they went again with Neil Wagner who England milked for 192 runs from just over 29 overs in the first testBrook might have shown some caution at the start of the innings after seeing Zac Crawley Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope all fall to catches behind the wicketBut after a settling in period he approached his innings with typical forcefulness while Root provided him unwavering supportThe rain began to fall just after 5 pm and prevented further playThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever