Root and Bairstow ease England to record run chase against India

On a cool, overcast morning at Edgbaston this reborn England team climbed their highest fourth-innings mountain of all time, the final steps of their ascent to a target of 378 runs sealing a seven-wicket victory over India like it was a casual stroll in the park.

As Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow scampered the final run at exactly midday it not only drew a five-match series played out over the best part of a year 2-2 but surely sent a shock wave through the game; England, under new management in Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, are a now side to seriously fear on the chase in Test cricket.

After all, this was their fourth such feat this summer, surpassing the 277, 299 and 296 they knocked off against New Zealand and also their greatest ever chase, the day when Stokes pulled off his career-defining Ashes heist at Headingley in 2019 and 359 was taken down. This time there was not nearly as much drama.

Instead, Stokes could sit on the balcony as the next man in and watch an ice-cool pursuit driven by celestial centuries from Root, 142 not out from 173 balls, and Bairstow, unbeaten on 114 from 145. In the case of the former it was his 11th since the start of 2021 and a 28th overall, the latter a fourth in five innings of relentless form.

India, so dominant at Lord’s and the Oval when they took a 2-1 lead last summer, were practically powerless to prevent the two Yorkshiremen from finessing the final 119 runs in the space of 90 minutes on the fifth morning. The inevitability was remarkable once the early exchanges failed to produce the breakthrough the tourists so craved.

Quick Guide England’s best run chases Show

378 for three v India, Edgbaston, 2022

England’s record run-chase felt both logical and incredible. It was entirely in keeping with their fourth-innings rampages this summer, but the size of the target, the quality of the opposition attack and the ease of the victory took Bazball into the stratosphere. Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow, both in the form of their life, strolled up Everest in their slippers. They may never have more fun on a cricket field.

362 for nine v Australia, Headingley, 2019

It’s no longer England’s highest run-chase, but then this was never about records. Ben Stokes kept the 2019 Ashes alive with an outrageous burst of hitting, adding 76 for the last wicket with Jack Leach, who made a career-defining 1 not out. Stokes’s unbeaten 135 was an innings that went through the gears like no other: having scored three from the first 73 balls, he walloped 74 off the last 42.

332 for seven v Australia, Melbourne, 1928-29

No Bazball here: it took England 159.5 overs to chase down a target of 332 at the MCG. The legendary opener Herbert Sutcliffe anchored the innings with an eight-hour 135, and an England batting lineup full of greats – Jack Hobbs, Sutcliffe, Wally Hammond – were cruising at 318 for three before a flurry of late wickets made the scoreline more respectable. The match scoreline, that is: the victory put England 3-0 up in the series.

315 for four v Australia, Headingley, 2001

Mark Butcher was a good Test batsman, perhaps very good. For one day, he was undeniably, awe-inspiringly great. A bruised, battered England, already 3-0 down in the series, were set a target of 315 on an erratic Headingley pitch. But Butcher made light work of it by lacing Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee to all parts. He finished on 173 not out and England had a famous victory against arguably the greatest Test team ever.

307 for six v New Zealand, Christchurch, 1996-97

Mike Atherton is best remembered for his match-saving 185 not out at Johannesburg in 1995-96. The following winter he produced a lesser-known epic, this time to win a match – and a series. After carrying his bat for 94 in the first innings, he batted almost seven hours to make 118 in the second. After a post-Atherton wobble, John Crawley and Dominic Cork calmly guided England to their first away series win in five years.

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Both batters had begun the day in the 70s and, in a reverse of their roles in the chase in Leeds last week, it was Root who surged out of the garage like a purring supercar, three figures brought up from 136 balls with a series of frictionless drives and guides before his new party trick – the reverse scoop for six – dazzled the day-five crowd.

Bairstow did not have to wait too long for his 12th Test century and a second in the match, his hustled single off Ravindra Jadeja reaching the landmark from 138 balls; having propped up England’s first-innings of 284 all out with 106 – a total that had still left a 132-run deficit – there was little doubt as to the player of this mind-bending match.

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It left 21 runs to win and Bairstow turned on the afterburners with a flurry of meaty shots off the beleaguered Mohammed Siraj. Root drew the scores level with a reverse-swept four off Jadeja, before a miscued repeat completed this latest slice of history.