Joe Root Sets Record with 34th Test Century as England Near Victory Against Sri Lanka
Joe Root created history by becoming the first English player to reach the milestone of 34 Test centuries on the third day of the second Test at Lord’s.
His outstanding effort, which included a twin century, broke records and helped England advance to perhaps win the series. Root becomes the fourth player to score two tons at Lord’s, putting Sri Lanka two down and chasing 483.
Key Performances and Match Scorecard
Sri Lanka 196 and 53 for 2 (Karunaratne 23*, Stone 1-1, Atkinson 1-15) need a further 430 runs to beat England 427 and 251 (Root 103, Asitha 3-52, Kumara 3-53).
At Lord’s, for the second time in three days, Joe Root was the center of attention. The batting maestro of England maintained the momentum of an exciting Test match by scoring two tons for the first time in his illustrious career. His 34th century in the format also created new records for his nation and put his team in position for a series-clinching victory.
With nine wickets remaining and England leading by 256 runs at the start of the day, Root let the eager spectators enjoy the spectacle of a Lord’s Saturday. If data on burst champagne corks existed, Root would most likely establish a different standard.
In the end, his 103-run innings was crowned by many records: he became the highest run scorer at Lord’s with seven Test hundreds, surpassing Graham Gooch as the top run scorer on the field. Cook is currently fewer than 100 runs away from breaking his all-time England run-scoring records.
His fastest effort in the format, coming off of 111 balls, was this one as well. Together with Olly Stone, the No. 10, he hit the mark by swiping Lahiru Kumara’s bouncer in front of deep point, setting off a rising crescendo of “Roooooooot!” that rolled across the floor. Harry Brook scored 37 off 36 balls, which was the next-highest score by one of his teammates.
Root was back in the field when Sri Lanka was asked to chase a target of 483. With two catches at first slip, he removed Nishan Madushka and Pathum Nissanka, becoming the fourth man to reach 200 in Test cricket. He is very much targeting the record-holder, Rahul Dravid, who has 210.
Due in part to an early conclusion caused by poor light, Sri Lanka ended the day with just two defeats. For a squad lacking confidence in their batting, a world record target seemed far off.
However, Dimuth Karunaratne persevered through 90 minutes in the dark after tea, despite being declared leg before wicket on his third delivery due to a blunder from Paul Reiffel. After Ollie Pope ordered England to bowl their spinners a second time in order to preserve the condition of the ball for Sunday, he left with “lightwatcher” Prabath Jayasuriya.
After being replaced behind the stumps by Dinesh Chandimal on the third morning, Madushka was the first wicket to fall, edging Gus Atkinson to slip to cap off a challenging first tour of England. He also dropped two catches in the field, one of which still resulted in Ben Duckett’s dismissal as Angelo Mathews snared the rebound.
Nissanka made it through on 2 when the tiniest of under-edges to leg slip off Shoaib Bashir went unnoticed, but in Olly Stone’s first over, a snorter dismissed her as the light returned to allow a return to pace.
Feeling that they had enough time to take the eight wickets needed for a 2-0 series lead, England exited the field just after 5 p.m. On the second evening, Kamindu Mendis had expressed optimism that Sri Lanka could make a dent in the score if they could dismiss England for “under 150-175”. Although they assiduously removed five wickets by then, they were unable to stop the Roots from marching on to 251 and an apparent lead.
Because of Root’s consistency, England managed to get through the morning session with few problems, and after the break, the focus of the match remained on him. After reaching fifty from 65 balls thanks to a nudge down the ground from Jayasuriya, he started to pick up pace, hitting three fours in four balls, two of which were carefully reverse-swept and the other wide.
Sri Lanka persisted, with Jayasuriya dismissing Jamie Smith leg before wicket despite the batsman’s review, and Chris Woakes flat-batting Milan Rathnayake to provide cover. Atkinson’s dismissal, however, was a far cry from the graceful simplicity that defined his first-inning hundred: he was caught behind the keeper at long-stop after top-edging a reverse-pull towards Asitha Fernando. The same bowler was subsequently gloved behind by Potts, but Stone persisted in helping Root reach his milestone.
In the same over, Stone was caught at fine leg, but England continued to bat despite appearing to be making a statement with their attitude. After tea was taken early in the innings, Root eventually gifted Kumara a third wicket by top-edging a worn-out heave to deep-backward square leg.
Apart from Root, England’s batting performance was inconsistent, which demonstrated their firm hold on the game. During the morning session, three wickets fell, including that of England’s stand-in captain, Pope, who scored his highest score while replacing Ben Stokes. However, Pope fell again in a bewildering manner, this time by slashing an Asitha bouncer straight to deep backward point for 17 runs, just after Sri Lanka had brought four men back for the ploy.
Following Dan Lawrence’s dismissal on the second evening, the hosts resumed on 25 for 1, with Ben Duckett being the first to go because of an inadvertent bit of choreography between slip and gully. Rathnayake attempted a drive by pitching the ball up from around the wicket, but Madushka was able to scoop the opportunity back towards Mathews for a standard catch, even though he was unable to hold on while diving to his right.
Pope, on the other hand, wanted to reduce some of the commotion surrounding his batting. With a clip off his legs, he reached double figures for the first time in the series. Against Rathnayake, he escaped a review for leg before wicket, as ball-tracking indicated the ball would have passed the stumps. Nevertheless, Asitha targeted him from around the wicket, thus he did not last very long.
A hefty outside edge between slip and gully was the first of Root’s four boundaries, but aside from that, he was calmly heading into his third consecutive 50+ score. Though Root was first content to move at a strike rate in the 70s, enabling Brook and subsequently Smith to play the aggressor, Jayasuriya was picked off on the sweep and twice down the ground.
It appeared from Brook’s intentions during a half-century stand that England was considering the declaration already. After Brook was dropped badly on 9, Madushka attempted a botched skied slog-sweep at midwicket and, to add insult to injury, lashed out at Jayasuriya’s following delivery into the Tavern Stand.
The spinner for Sri Lanka took the brunt of the attack, but he was rewarded with the wicket of Brook when Madushka held him safely in front of the rope during another effort to drag him leg side
Alastair Cook Lauds Former Teammate Joe Root After 34th Test Hundred
Following his defeat by his erstwhile teammate for the record of most England Test hundreds, Alastair Cook praised Joe Root as “a genius”. At Lord’s on Saturday, Root scored 103 in the second innings of his match against Sri Lanka, his 34th century overall in Test cricket, and he broke Cook’s previous record of 33.
Former teammate and captain expected to lose his position as England’s top run scorer
Cook, who captained England in each of Root’s first 53 Test matches, declared, “He is quite simply England’s greatest, and it’s absolutely right that he should have this record, on his own,” during commentary for the BBC’s Test Match Special. “Joe, absorb it. We are witnessing a mastermind.
“I can’t think of another batsman that I’ve watched play who has the same sense of inevitable run-scoring as Joe Root does. I told him he was going to get 100 when I contacted him this morning at around six. Even though I know he’s in excellent shape, it’s still enjoyable to witness a master and a craftsman in action.”
With two hundreds at Lord’s, Root’s career total now stands at 12,377 runs. He needs 96 more runs at The Oval the following week to surpass Cook and Kumar Sangakkara. In that case, he would rank as England’s top run scorer and the fifth-highest in Test history. “He’s just got the final one to tick off next week,” Cook stated. “In this kind of form, there’s no reason why he can’t.”
During his second century of the game, Root took advantage of left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya of Sri Lanka, scoring 60 runs off just 59 balls faced by him. “The spinner was bowling today, and quite honestly, he could have hit him wherever he wanted with absolutely no risk,” Cook stated. “That is the art of batting: low-risk shots which score you runs.”
When an eighteen-year-old Root made his List A debut for Yorkshire against Essex in 2009, Cook was part of the opposition. Cook recalled, “He couldn’t get the ball off the square.” “Everyone said, ‘he’s a good player’, but I didn’t see that.”
However, when Root made his debut for his country in the last game of their 2-1 series victory in India, three years later, Cook was leading England in Test cricket. “I saw someone mentally ready to play Test cricket,” Cook stated. “The only thing to worry about was how he would handle it the first time he went to bat.
“With his England cap on and a huge smile on his face, he walked out to bat with the game hanging in the balance, looking thirteen.” After witnessing his initial encounters, I thought, “This guy is here to stay.” Sincerely, I said, ‘He’s getting ten thousand runs. Although I’m not sure to whom I said it, I do know that I did.”
