In a video doing the rounds on social media, Joe Root can be seen placing a standing bat at the non-striker’s end during the Lord’s Test, with the object retaining its balance firmly on the pitch.
Joe Root pulled off magic in the fourth innings of the first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s, helping England gun down a 277-run target on the fourth morning with five wickets to spare.
Root, who had scored 34 off 89 by the time an innings-recovering 90-run stand with skipper Ben Stokes ended late on Day 3, accelerated brilliantly thereafter – scoring run-a-ball 81- in an unbeaten 120-run stand with wicketkeeper Ben Foakes to help England take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
While there were trademark strokes from the striker’s end, there was magic at the other too. A viral video showcases his bat levitating itself at the non-striker’s end, when placed standing on the pitch as Kyle Jamieson runs in to bowl.
Theoretically, one could imagine that the bat held its position due to it being flat-bottomed, rather than that part being slightly curved as usual. But to place it on a likely uneven surface, in what didn’t even appear to be in a perfectly straight right-angle with the ground makes it all the more fascinating.
I knew @root66 was talented but not as magic as this……. What is this sorcery? @SkyCricket #ENGvNZ 🏏 pic.twitter.com/yXdhlb1VcF
— Ben Joseph (@Ben_Howitt) June 5, 2022
Ok… apparently Root now has flat-bottomed bats, not slightly curved as per usual. https://t.co/ECL87LGevd
— Will Macpherson (@willis_macp) June 5, 2022
If anyone can do it, it has to be a guy named Root
— Sharad B (@catchsharad) June 6, 2022
Root was standing his bat up vertically without a hand on it, my mind has been blown
— Fergal Hanna (@Fergal_H) June 5, 2022
A neat clip off Tim Southee towards mid-wicket for a couple would get Joe Root to his 26th Test hundred, as well as to the 10,000 run milestone in the format. He became the 14th cricketer to do so, only the second Englishman after his former captain Sir Alastair Cook.
An over later, Root would finish the chase with three crisply timed boundaries off the same bowler – a typically deft touch between the slip cordon towards the third man, a sweetly timed off-drive downtown and a perfectly executed swivelling pull towards the deep mid-wicket boundary – to round off a memorable Lord’s outing.
It was England’s only second win in their last 18 Tests, the first since their innings and 76 run victory against India at Headingley last year. The second Test of the ongoing series will be played at Trent Bridge, Nottingham from June 10-14.
