England's leading batsman, Joe Root reached a major milestone by scoring his 36th Test century during Day 3 of the second Test against New Zealand in Wellington. The feat puts Root alongside India legend Rahul Dravid, who also scored 36 Test hundreds in his glorious career. Root now stands at fifth position on the all-time list for most centuries in Test cricket.

Sachin Tendulkar tops the list with 51 Test centuries, Jacques Kallis is second at 45, Ricky Ponting third at 41, and Kumar Sangakkara fourth at 38. Joe Root, now 33 years old, has levelled with Rahul Dravid for the most Test hundreds against New Zealand as well, this being his sixth against them. Besides Root and Dravid, Jacques Kallis too has six Test hundreds against the BlackCaps. The record for the highest number of centuries against New Zealand is held by Javed Miandad with seven.

England declared their second innings at a dominating 462/2, leaving New Zealand with an improbable task of chasing 583 runs to win.

It proved to be a well-calculated decision as the declaration was done at just the right time to catch the favorable conditions. On an overcast day with wind blowing strongly in favor of England's bowlers, the Kiwi batters struggled to get settled. The aggressive chase for 583 runs came to an end as they were bowled out for 259.

On the second day of the Test, Joe Root went on to achieve something which no Englishman has achieved before. He became the first English player and fourth cricketer in Test cricket history to score 100 fifty-plus scores in the longest format of the game. He is the only player along with Sachin Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis, and Ricky Ponting to achieve the milestone of 100 fifty-plus scores in the game.

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