England vs New Zealand: 'A mad, mad win', Twitter goes wild as Root seals memorable win for hosts at Lord's

Root produced a brilliant 115 not out to reduce England’s chase of 277 to a cakewalk, securing a five-wicket win that gave them the series lead.

What was expected to be a thrilling conclusion to the Lord’s Test on the fourth day instead became a cakewalk for England. Thanks to former captain Joe Root’s brilliant hundred, the hosts went 1-0 up in the three-match series with a five-wicket victory over New Zealand on Sunday. Root remained unbeaten on 115, his 26th ton in Test cricket, and in the process, became only the second English batter after Alastair Cook to complete 10,000 runs in the format. He was aided by wicketkeeper-batter Ben Foakes, who remained unbeaten on 32 and forged an unbroken 120-run stand for the sixth wicket. [caption id=“attachment_10761891” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Joe Root celebrates after hitting the winning boundary, sealing a five-wicket victory for England over New Zealand at Lord’s in the process. AP[/caption] Root took charge after a top-order collapse left England at a shaky 69/4 in the afternoon session on Day 3 and brought them back on their feet with a 90-run stand with skipper Ben Stokes (54). Though they were in a relatively comfortable position at stumps, Root needed to ensure that the hosts did not suffer any further scares on the fourth day like the Black Caps did the previous day when they crumbled from 251/4 to 285 all out. And with this 328-ball knock that was studded with 12 fours, Root once again asserted himself as one of the world’s foremost red-ball batters right up there with the likes of Steve Smith. The match did garner plenty of interest on social media, especially on microblogging website Twitter where “ENGvNZ” was among the top hashtags in India. Here are some of the top reactions from Cricket Twitter: