The panic button had been pushed when Pope chopped Shamar Joseph onto his stumps and then six balls later Brook edged Jayden Seales into the gloves of Joshua Da Silva.
Root himself had an early stroke of fortune before either wicket fell, benefitting from a lack of West Indies conviction when he was hit on the pad on the 10th ball of the day by an inswinger from Seales as he got his feet stuck and overbalanced attempting to defend.
Seales and Brathwaite seemed concerned with height and the West Indies captain opted against sending it upstairs, only for the ball-tracking technology to show it would have hit the top of leg stump.
On such fine margins are Test matches sometimes won and lost, and from that point Root was near-chanceless until the middle of the afternoon session.
On a ground where Brian Lara is so venerated it was fitting he leapfrogged the legendary Trinidadian left-hander, who was watching in the stands, to seventh place the list of all-time leading Test run-scorers.
It was an innings that had the classical hallmarks of Root at his pomp. The type of strokeplay admired by all and sundry down the years.
Much has been made of Root’s role within the Bazball paradigm yet the solution has always been clear: just be Joe Root.
Deft accumulation almost by stealth, with rarely a loose shot in sight, took him zen-like beyond 12,000 runs.
A 33rd Test hundred, and the chance to level with Sir Alastair Cook’s tally of centuries, beckoned for the 33-year-old.
Ultimately he was undone by a smart piece of bowling 13 runs shy when left-arm spinner Gudakesh Motie’s arm ball skipped onto his back pad and trapped him plumb lbw.
However, it is only a matter of time before he eclipses all of Cook’s batting records and more besides. Kumar Sangakkara, who has 12,400 Test runs, is the next target.
Source Agencies
