By Srian Obeyesekere
Sri Lanka lost two wickets for 53 runs chasing 482 to win when bad light brought an early end to the third day’s play of the second test at Lords after England had been bowled out for 251 in a splendid job by the Lankan bowlers whose bogey man continued to be Joe Root who rode to twin centuries as he followed his first innings 143 with another sterling rescue 103-run effort after the hosts were reduced to 69 for 3 and 127 for 4 in a repeat show from the first test when England suffered early setbacks.
Despite Root’s century the grand job of Sri Lanka decimating England for 251 paled out by the first innings batting mess up 231 handicap conceded to the mountainous prospect before Dhananjaya de Silva and his specialist batsmen to the daunting task of staying in the game in the next two days with already Nishan Madushka 13 and Pathum Nissanka 14 bundled back to the pavilion. Madushka was taken out by Gus Atkinson snapped up by Joe Root who took his second catch to dismiss Nissanka off Stone.
In that specter of gloom with Sri Lanka fronting a world record target, Dimuth Karunaratne remaining unbeaten on 23 having faced 48 balls into 90 minutes having survived a poor LBW decision by umpire Paul Reiffel overturned by the review, was some hope to the Lankan camp when the game resumes on a decisive fourth day to weathering a fired up England attack with watchman Prabath Jayasuriya on 3 having survived 23 deliveries.
Sri Lanka’s seamers performed exceptionally well with Asitha Fernando and Lahiru Kumara claiming 3 wickets apiece and Milan Rathnayake 2 with leggy Prabath Jayasuriya 2 in dismissing England for below 300 despite Root’s century.
Root was to balloon hugely the rock wall to the Lankans as he batted himself to multi records that also measured by his seventh test hundred at Lords more than any other by a batsman at the hallowed grounds having gone past Alistair Cook’s 33 tons to becoming England’s highest century maker to surpassing Graham Gooch’s record to the leading run getter at Lords and within 100 runs of bettering Cook’s overall run-scoring records.
CHIEF SCORES:
England 427 (Joe Root 143, Gus Atkinson 118, Asitha Fernando 5/102) & 251 (54.3 Overs) (Joe Root 103, Harry Brook 37, Ben Duckett 24, Jamie Smith 26, Ollie Pope 17,
Sri Lanka 196 (Kamindu Mendis 74) & 53/2 (20 Overs) (Dimuth Karunaratne n.o. 23, Prabath Jayasuriya n.o. 3, Olly Stone 1/1, Gus Atkinson 1/15)
