Adam Lyth scores his first Test century for England but late wickets give New Zealand a great end to second day of second Test

England closed the day on 253-5 still trailing New Zealand by 97 runs
Adam Lyth scored his first Test century before being run out for 107
Alastair Cook passed Graham Gooch as England’s leading Test runscorer
New Zealand were all out for 350 before England reached lunch at 54-0
England reached tea on 163 without loss to eat into New Zealand’s total
New Zealand managed late wickets of Gary Ballance (29), Joe Root (1) and Ben Stokes (6) as England’s earlier good work began to come undone

Published:
17:48 GMT, 30 May 2015

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Updated:
18:10 GMT, 30 May 2015

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Graham Gooch would have nodded his approval at the under-stated way Alastair Cook celebrated becoming the leading runscorer in England’s Test history.

There was acknowledgement of the warm ovation from the Headingley crowd, a brief embrace with Adam Lyth and then the England captain simply got on with his job, just as master craftsman Gooch would have done.

If passing Gooch’s tally of 8,900 Test runs was the proudest moment of Cook’s career then he did a good job of hiding it, preferring instead to concentrate on the needs of his England team in this second Investec Test.

Adam Lyth celebrates reaching his century and he managed to reach 107 before being run out by Trent Boult

Lyth’s century was his first ever in a Test and it was fitting that it came at his home ground, Headingley

New Zealand took wickets of Gary Ballance and Joe Root (pictured) late on in a great end to the day for them

Ben Stokes was out for six as England’s work came undone with four wickets falling for just 32 runs

At that stage, when Cook square drove Tim Southee to the boundary to reach the 32 runs he needed to exceed his mentor, England task in replying to New Zealand’s super-charged 350 in just 72 overs had only just begun.

Yet by the time Cook and Lyth were parted after the highest opening stand for England at this famous old ground, the captain would have been more inclined to reflect on the significance of his achievement.

New Zealand fought their way back when the second new ball claimed Gary Ballance, Joe Root and Ben Stokes to leave England on 253 for five at the close, 97 behind, but this second day was still about Cook’s significant landmark.

Cook played down his right to be compared to Gooch before this match but despite his problems post-Ashes he has overtaken the man he admires so much in his 203rd innings for England compared to the 215 his fellow Essex man had.

Now, aged 30, he has plenty of time to go on beyond the 10,000 mark that no Englishman has threatened, even though the feeling persists that this summer’s Ashes could well provide the natural end to his captaincy, win or lose.

There must have been times during the last fraught 18 months when Cook would have wondered if a record he had seemed destined to break for the last five or six years would have remained tantalisingly out of reach.

Question marks over his captaincy and being ‘found out’ as a batsman created an atmosphere of uncertainty around Cook that was exacerbated by the vitriol of those who unfairly blamed him for Kevin Pietersen’s demise.

Through it all Cook retained his dignity and stubbornly worked at putting things right, going back for help to the man in Gooch he rang in the wake of England’s Ashes disaster to tell him he was sacked as their batting coach.

It is a measure of the class of Gooch that he was only too willing to help Cook again when pupil contacted his old teacher at his lowest point when time ran out on him as one-day captain on the brink of his first World Cup.