Joe Root makes record 34th Test hundred as England close on Sri Lanka series win
Sri Lanka were deduced to 53 for two after being set 483 to win at Lord’s.
Joe Root chalked up a record 34th Test century as England raced closer to a series victory over Sri Lanka.
Root equalled Sir Alastair Cook’s national benchmark this week and the Yorkshireman is now out on his own as, for the first time in his glittering 145-Test career, he registered a hundred in both innings.
His latest ton, his seventh at Lord’s, was his fastest ever off 111 deliveries before he holed out for 103, the backbone of England’s 251 which left Sri Lanka needing a world-record 483 to win.
Sri Lanka were left with seven sessions of this second Test to either haul down the mammoth total or bat for a draw to tee up a decider at the Kia Oval next week and they closed on 53 for two as bad light ended play early.
The floodlights were on for most of the third day under gloomy skies but Root lit up the home of cricket as he became the 13th England player to amass a three-figure score in both innings of a Test.
Only five other players in history have more hundreds than Root, whose father was in the crowd to watch him move alongside Sunil Gavaskar, Brian Lara, Younis Khan and Mahela Jayawardene on the all-time list.
If this was another memorable day for Root, who is now within 95 runs of Cook’s England benchmark 12,472 in Tests, it was another forgettable one for Ollie Pope.
While he reached double figures for the first time in four innings as stand-in England captain, Pope was out for 17 to an ugly premeditated hack attempting to meet Sri Lanka’s short-ball ploy head-on.
He eschewed a nightwatcher the previous evening after refusing the follow-on but, with England 256 ahead, he was scratchy, beaten through the gate by Lahiru Kumara before weathering a blow on his right elbow.
Ben Duckett departed for 24, caught on the rebound by Angelo Mathews from Nishan Madushka’s parry, and Pope walked into Asitha Fernando’s bumper trap. Attempting to offset Sri Lanka’s heavy leg-side field, Pope stepped back and across but picked out the lone off-side boundary rider at deep backward point.
Root edged between a vacant slip and gully for his first four but was otherwise fluent and happy to play second fiddle to Harry Brook and Jamie Smith either side of lunch. Brook was dropped on nine and made 37 before holing out off Prabath Jayasuriya, who had Smith lbw for 26 after he missed a sweep.
Root moved unobtrusively to his sixth fifty-plus score in eight innings this summer, celebrating with a trademark late cut for four off Milan Rathnayake, while showed little discomfort against Jayasuriya.
Indeed, Root occasionally toyed with the slow left-armer, with two conventional sweeps then a reverse for three fours in an over.
He missed his patented reverse ramp – the shot had been in his downfall in his first-innings 143 – but then nailed the next ball with a pull for four and the only danger of him missing out on his hundred seemed to be him running out of partners.
Chris Woakes chipped to extra cover while Gus Atkinson, full of confidence after his maiden first-class century a day earlier, sliced an unconventional reverse pull to Rathnayake on the third boundary.
While England’s lead climbed past 450, there was no danger of a declaration as Root went past Graham Gooch’s Lord’s record of 2,015 Test runs after getting to within four of his landmark hundred.
As in the first innings, where he saw out 12 dots on 99, he kept the crowd waiting with 16 deliveries in the 90s amid a short-ball barrage from Fernando but Root cut the tension by stepping to leg and carving through vacant cover point for four to reach the milestone – his second fifty took just 46 balls.
He was last man out when he shovelled to deep square-leg but there was no keeping Root out of the action after an early tea as he recorded his 199th and 200th Test catches when Nishan Madushka and Pathum Nissanka edged to first slip off Atkinson and Olly Stone respectively.
England had to turn to spin as early as the 10th over under leaden skies, with Shoaib Bashir operating in tandem alongside Root. There was a small two-over window where pace was available again and Stone snaffled the edge of Nissanka.
While England’s spinners returned, the teams left the field shortly after 5pm with play called off an hour later. Dimuth Karunaratne ended the day on 23 not out with nightwatcher Jayasuriya on 3no.
