{"id":22574,"date":"2025-07-26T02:29:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T02:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/22574\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T02:29:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T02:29:20","slug":"joe-root-overtakes-ricky-ponting-on-all-time-runs-leaderboard-sachin-tendulkar-only-man-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/22574\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Root overtakes Ricky Ponting on all-time runs leaderboard; Sachin Tendulkar only man ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just one man stands in the way of Joe Root<\/a> and cricketing history.<\/p>\n

With his latest batting masterclass of 150 on Saturday (AEST), the England star became the second-highest runs-scorer in Test cricket behind Indian great Sachin Tendulkar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust one more to go,” said Ricky Ponting<\/a>, the former Australian batter who Root leapfrogged on day three of the fourth Test against India<\/a> at Old Trafford.<\/p>\n

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England leads by 186 runs after reaching 544-7 at stumps.<\/p>\n

That commanding position was largely thanks to Root’s brilliance on a day when he took his career runs total to 13,409. And despite having a long way to go to overtake Tendulkar (15,921), Ponting, who watched from the Sky commentary booth, is backing the Englishman to become the all-time No.1.<\/p>\n

“The way his career has gone over the last five years, there\u2019s absolutely no reason why not,\u201d he said before adding that the crowd had “witnessed a moment in history”.<\/p>\n

\"Joe<\/p>\n

Joe Root plays the shot that takes him past Ricky Ponting.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Personal triumph<\/p>\n

With Tendulkar in his sights, it was fitting that the 34-year-old Root’s charge up the rankings came against India.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not a big one for landmarks, but I think that\u2019s a pretty cool one. Second-highest Test runs is incredible,\u201d said England vice-captain Ollie Pope.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m sure he knew what the number was (that he needed) but he’s not a guy who wants to shout about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hunger he has, I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if he chased him (Tendulkar) down.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the brightest day yet of this Test, Root lapped up the adulation of the crowd, which rose to applaud as he checked off one personal achievement after another.<\/p>\n

There was a half-century at lunch, which saw Root move up to third on the runs list, surpassing Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis.<\/p>\n

His 38th Test century came next and soon he was passing Ponting. Just when thoughts might have been turning toward a double century, he was stumped by substitute wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel off Ravindra Jadeja.<\/p>\n

\"England's<\/p>\n

England’s Joe Root walks off after his knock of 150.\u00a0AP<\/p>\n

There was more applause and chants of \u201cRooooot\u201d as he walked to the pavilion, having helped England take control of a match it’s hoping to win to clinch the five-match series, which it leads 2-1.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way he goes about his cricket, the way he trains, the amount of runs he’s got, is amazing. He’s a joy to watch and to see how he goes about his stuff. He keeps getting better and better,\u201d said Pope.<\/p>\n

The day could have gone very differently had Root not survived nearly being run out on 22, following a miscommunication with Ollie Pope that left him way out of position when Jadeja tried to capitalise.<\/p>\n

Before that he narrowly avoided being out lbw.<\/p>\n

But that was long forgotten as Old Trafford stood to applaud his latest outstanding performance.<\/p>\n

\"Sachin<\/p>\n

Sachin Tendulkar during his legendary career.\u00a0AAP<\/p>\n

In control<\/p>\n

Root was not the only one who impressed as England carried on its brilliant batting from day two, when the opening partnership of Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett put on a blistering 166 in reply to India\u2019s first-innings 358<\/a>.<\/p>\n

England resumed on 2-225 and Pope joined Root with a half-century at lunch as the visitors struggled to have any impact with the ball.<\/p>\n

Pope eventually went for 71 when caught by KL Rahul off Washington Sundar. And Sundar soon had his second wicket when Harry Brook (3) was stumped by Jurel.<\/p>\n

Stokes worries<\/p>\n

England overcame that wobble when Ben Stokes (77 not out) came out to join Root.<\/p>\n

The pair looked impenetrable as the England captain reached 66 not out and Root continued to score freely.<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Ben Stokes leaves the field with cramp.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

It was only when Stokes retired hurt with cramp in the evening session with England on 4-491 that the partnership was eventually broken. Then India began to have some joy on a difficult day.<\/p>\n

Root was stumped to make it 5-499. Smith (9) was caught by Jurel off Jasprit Bumrah and Chris Woakes (4) was bowled by Mohammed Siraj.<\/p>\n

Wickets fell so quickly that Stokes was back at the crease before stumps to join Liam Dawson (21 not out).<\/p>\n

Moving a lot more comfortably, Stokes added 11 runs to his score as England headed for a substantial first-innings lead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just one man stands in the way of Joe Root and cricketing history. With his latest batting masterclass…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-22574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}