Tea England 427 and 251 (Root 103) lead Sri Lanka 196 by 482 runs
Joe Root scored his second century of the Lord’s Test, and the 34th of his record-breaking career, before he was last man out as England set Sri Lanka a target of 483 to win.
Root added 103 to his first-innings 143 to surpass Alastair Cook’s mark of 33 Test match hundreds for England. In the process, he became the leading Test run-scorer at Lord’s, as well as moving to within 100 of Cook’s overall England run-scoring record.
Root’s reliability had allowed England to negotiate the morning session with few alarms, and the game continued to revolve around him after the interval. He brought up fifty from 65 balls with punch down the ground off Prabath Jayasuriya, then began to push the tempo, striking the spinner for three fours in four balls.
Sri Lanka continued to chip away, with Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson and Matthew Potts all departing as Root closed in on three figures. He was joined by the No. 10, Olly Stone, with 12 runs needed, and rode a wave of encouragement from around the crowd, who burst into celebration as Root swatted Lahiru Kumara’s bumper in front of deep point to bring up twin hundreds in a Test for the first time – becoming the fourth man to do so at Lord’s.
With the mark coming from 111 balls, it was also Root’s fastest Test century.
Stone was caught at fine leg in the same over but, although England’s approach had seemed to have a declaration in mind, they batted on. Root eventually gave Kumara a third wicket, top-edging a tired heave to deep backward square leg, with tea taken at the close of the innings.
Amidst England’s Root march, Smith reviewed his lbw decision off the bowling of Jayasuriya, only for ball-tracking to show it was smashing leg stump, before Woakes flat-batted Milan Rathnayake to cover. Atkinson’s dismissal, meanwhile, in contrast to the elegant simplicity that characterised his maiden hundred in the first innings, saw him caught behind the keeper at something approach long stop, top-edging a reverse-pull at Asitha Fernando. Potts then gloved the same bowler behind.
Root’s brisk half-century partnership with Harry Brook was the centre piece of the morning session and, although they continued to take wickets, there was a sense that Sri Lanka were fighting a losing battle.
England’s batting effort was uneven, Root aside, reflective of their strong grip on the game. The wickets to fall during the morning session included that of Ollie Pope, England’s stand-in captain, who made his highest score while deputising for Ben Stokes but again fell in perplexing fashion, slashing an Asitha bouncer straight to deep backward point for 17, shortly after Sri Lanka had put four men back for the ploy.
Kamindu Mendis had held out the hope on the second evening that Sri Lanka could find a way back into the game if they could get England out for “under 150-175”. They were rewarded with early wickets, Ben Duckett falling to an accidental piece of choreography between slip and gully, as Angelo Mathews snapped up the rebound from Nishan Madushka’s drop, before Pope and Brook both holed out – but at lunch, England had passed 150 four down.
Brook, who made 37 from 36 balls, was badly dropped on 9 by Madushka. Brook slog-swept Jayasuriya into the Tavern Stand the ball after skying the same shot, only for Madushka – replaced behind the stumps on the third morning by Dinesh Chandimal – to grass the chance.
Jayasuriya kicked the turf in frustration and he bore the brunt of the attack, conceding 61 from his 10-over spell. He did have the satisfaction of removing Brook, however, England’s No. 5 trying once again to launch the spinner down the slope over midwicket, Madushka this time holding on.
England had resumed on 25 for 1, having lost Dan Lawrence late on day two, and were soon two down. Rathnayake pitched the ball up from round the wicket, tempting the drive – and while Madushka could not hold on diving to his right, he managed to scoop the chance back towards Mathews for a regulation slip catch.
Pope was looking to quell some of the noise around his batting, and moved into double-figures for the first time with a clip off his legs. He then survived a review for lbw against Rathnayake, ball-tracking showing the ball would have cleared the stumps, but he did not last much longer, failing to clear the boundary rider with a deliberate uppercut as Asitha targeted him from round the wicket.
The first of Root’s four boundaries was a thick outside edge between slip and gully, but he was otherwise serene in progressing towards a third consecutive 50-plus score. Jayasuriya was picked off on the sweep and twice down the ground, though Root was happy to tick along at a strike rate in the 70s, allowing Brook and then Smith to play the aggressor.
Alan Gardner is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo. @alanroderick
