(MENAFN- Khaleej Times)
Published: Sun 1 Sep 2024, 11:34 PM
Gus Atkinson completed a memorable match by taking five wickets as England thrashed Sri Lanka by 190 runs in the second Test at Lord's on Sunday to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in a three-match series.
Sri Lanka, set what would have been a new Test record fourth-innings winning total of 483, were dismissed for 292 after tea on the fourth day despite fifties from Dinesh Chandimal (58), Dimuth Karunaratne (55) and captain Dhananjaya de Silva (50).
Fast bowler Gus Atkinson, who scored his maiden first-class hundred in England's first innings 427, led the attack with 5-62.
That meant player-of-the-match Atkinson secured a fifth mention on the dressing room honours boards in just his second Test at the 'Home of Cricket' after taking 12 wickets on England debut against the West Indies at Lord's last month.
He also became just the third Englishman after Tony Greig and Ian Botham to score a century and take five wickets in an innings of the same Test.
The Surrey paceman's latest impressive return helped England seal a seventh successive win over Sri Lanka following their five-wicket success in last week's first Test at Old Trafford.
This game was also a personal triumph for Joe Root.
For the first time in 145 matches at this level, Root made hundreds in both innings -- 143 and 103 -- to set a new record of 34 Test centuries by an England batsman.
Sri Lanka now have little time to regroup before the third Test at the Oval, Atkinson's home ground, starts on Friday.
They resumed Sunday on 53-2 in front of a sparse if sun-drenched crowd.
The odds were stacked against them given the highest winning fourth-innings total in any Test is the West Indies' 418-7 against Australia at St John's in 2002/03, with the equivalent Lord's record the West Indies' 344-1 against England in 1984.
But early on Sunday, Root reprieved Karunaratne, who had added just two to his overnight 23, when failing to hold a fast-travelling one-handed slip chance from the opener's edged cut off Atkinson.
England did strike when Prabath Jayasuriya nicked Chris Woakes to second slip as the nightwatchman's gutsy 41-ball stay came to an end.
Karunaratne, 36, drove and pulled Atkinson for fours off successive deliveries on his way to a 98-ball fifty including seven boundaries.
The left-hander, however, was out for 55 shortly before lunch when injury-plagued fast bowler Olly Stone, in his first Test for three years, produced a rising 87 mph (140 kmh) delivery that Karunaratne could only glove down the legside to wicketkeeper Jamie Smith.
Sri Lanka were 136-4 at lunch.
Chandimal counter-attacked early in the afternoon session with three fours in an over against off-spinner Shoaib Bashir on his way to a dashing 42-ball fifty including 40 runs in boundaries
But Angelo Mathews, tempted into a big shot by Bashir, fell for 36 when he drove the 20-year-old to mid-off.
Chandimal followed soon afterwards when caught at short leg off bat and pad after Atkinson nipped one back off the pitch.
Kamindu Mendis, boasting a staggeringly high Test average of 92 after scoring his third hundred in four Tests at Old Trafford, had made a defiant 74 in Sri Lanka's meagre first-innings 196.
But the 25-year-old left-hander, again batting curiously low down the order, fell for just for four on Sunday when he edged Atkinson, bowling from around the wicket, to Ben Duckett in the slips.
Mendis's exit left Sri Lanka, who have not won any of their eight previous Tests at Lord's, eyeing defeat at 200-7.
De Silva kept England waiting but, three balls after completing his fifty, he played on to Atkinson, who then had Milan Rathnayake caught behind to complete his five-wicket haul.
Woakes had the final say with Lahiru Kumara holing out to Stone at mid-on.
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