Root Leads England Fightback At Lord's

England recovered from falling to 30-4 in the first hour to reach 354-7 at the close of play on day one of the first Test against New Zealand.

Joe Root (98) and Ben Stokes (92) led the way at Lord's with a trailblazing 161-run partnership for the fifth wicket, although both fell agonisingly short of well-deserved centuries.

Jos Buttler (67) and Moeen Ali (49no) then put on their own enterprising 103-run partnership before Buttler was trapped lbw by Trent Boult (2-70) off the last ball of the day.

It was still England's day though, a far cry from the state of play in the opening hour of the morning session after New Zealand won the toss and chose to bowl, with a spell of four wickets falling across five overs.

Adam Lyth, one of two England debutants – the other being Mark Wood, fell for seven to a thin edge behind off Tim Southee (1-82). It was so fine an edge that he was tempted to review the decision, but ultimately chose not to.

Gary Ballance (one) was the next to go, to Boult, who was rotating with Southee for one-over spells at the Pavilion End with both favouring it to the Nursery End.

From the opposite end – impressive on debut for New Zealand – Matt Henry (3-93) bounced out Alastair Cook – who edged behind for 16 attempting to hook him – and then bowled Ian Bell (one) with a beautiful delivery that straightened on off-stump to beat the bat.

That left England in tatters before Root and Stokes rebuilt. Both showed signs of the aggressive approach they would adopt with boundaries early in their innings – Root with a beautiful cover drive for four from his second ball and Stokes hooking his seventh to the fence.

The pair looked completely untroubled as they put on 83 from 82 balls before lunch. Root then went through to fifty shortly after the interval, but was much more watchful in his approach after the bringing up the milestone, willing to take a back seat to the ever-aggressive Stokes.

The Durham all-rounder took a particular liking to Southee, who struggled with his length – punishing anything short or full – including two boundaries in one over which first brought up Stokes’ half-century and then the hundred partnership.

Henry didn't fare much better as the Durham all-rounder crunched 15 off one over, including a brutal pull for six. But eight runs short of a second Test ton, Stokes was gone – horribly misjudging a leave to a ball from offspinner Mark Craig, which bowled him.

England passed 200 before tea, but Root too fell short of a well-deserved ton soon after, edging Henry behind. It was probably the New Zealander's worst delivery in a terrific post-tea spell.

He almost trapped Moeen Ali lbw with his first ball but it was shown to have skewed off the back of Moeen's bat and ran away for four.

Having struggled against the short ball last summer, Moeen was likely expecting some hostile fast bowling, but with the tourists tiring towards the end of the day, he and Buttler were able to build another big partnership, feasting on some over-pitched deliveries.

Their stay at the crease was similarly positive in its approach to Root's and Stokes' earlier, the pair putting on 103 runs off 157 balls.

Buttler brought up his fifty shortly before New Zealand took the second new ball, but after he and Moeen seemed to have seen off the early threat by peppering the ball regularly to the boundary, Boult bowled a beauty to trap him in front of his stumps with the final ball of the day.