TOPIC:

Interesting match, old England batting around Root, as is their apparent custom. Thinking back on last summer, his batting shows how well the Aussies bowled to him; he hardly hit a cover drive, front or back foot, nor was he allowed to play the pull shot.
 

That was an intriguing Test AR.
Some of the low scoring Tests are some of the most exciting even though England got up by 5 wickets in the end, but the Kiwis had their chances especially when DeGrandhomme bowled Stokes cheaply only for it to be off a no ball.

Nz winning the toss and electing to bat first,was a mistake.They read the wicket wrongly.
Thinking it would bat well the first few days then deteriate.The wicket done the exact opposite.They almost put together 200 runs for there 5th wicket in the second innings.
But there bowlers could not swing the ball.In England's second innings,easy for Joe Root.And well done on 10,015 test runs and over 14,000 ODI runs.AV 49 tests and 51 in ODI's.

Indeed, gtrxuone, Joe Root can certainly play.
I read a bizarre stat that Root and Alastair Cook were both aged 31 years 157 days when they registered their 10,000th Test run.
I wonder if Joe will also get a knighthood.
England's decision to recall Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad was vindicated, with the pair taking a combined 10 wickets.
After fighting so hard to get back into the game, New Zealand should never have lost this Test match.
In addition to the costly no-ball by Colin De Grandhomme that BH mentioned, the Kiwis lost the game early on Day 3 when they collapsed from 4-251 to 285 all out.

Archie Joe has one Australian tour left in him.He needs a century down under.

I did a quick search and Joe Root has scored nine half-centuries in his three Ashes series in Australia, gtrxuone.
He has at least one tour Down Under still in him, but I'd be quite happy if he failed to make a Test century here.

AD: He needs to do a Hammond and make 900 runs in a series, 1928-9; as you know, Sir Geoff, Barrington, and Vaughan have all excelled at various times in our land

The beauty of test cricket is that even though there can be over 2000 balls in a 5 day test match, the game can pivot on just a few moments in the game.
In this particular test match, IMO the whole result was determined by 2 balls involving Colin De Grandhomme. The first was when he was run out first ball when he was wandering down the pitch, the second was when he bowled Ben Stokes with a no ball when England still needed around  200 to win. If those incidents had both gone New Zealands way, I think England would have lost.

Big right arm swing bowler Kyle Jamieson continues to impress for the kiwis.
They may have erred by playing the spinner instead of Wagner as he had next to no effect whilst you just know what you will get from Wagner 110%!

I think Wagner is a cert to play in the next test BH, especially now that De Grandhomme is out injured.