England 358 for 7 (Root 143, Atkinson 76*) vs Sri Lanka
After Root, there was daylight on the England batting card – and Dhananjaya would possibly rue the lack of Lahiru Kumara to steer Paul Reiffel to boost his finger to an lbw attraction when Root was on 11, with the DRS returning a verdict of umpire’s name. The following-highest rating was Atkinson’s unbeaten 76 from No. 8, together with his 92-run stand alongside Root the chief motive that England didn’t have what regarded a wonderfully respectable batting rug pulled from underneath them.
Root’s 143 took him stage with Alastair Prepare dinner on 33 Check centuries for England; in the course of the course of his innings, he overtook Prepare dinner for many Check runs scored in England (and Wales) – and it’s now certainly solely a matter of weeks, if not days, earlier than he passes Prepare dinner’s total mark for his nation. As soon as the engraver has completed his work, nobody may have extra entries on the batting honours board at Lord’s than Root, Graham Gooch and Michael Vaughan.
Having steered England previous the profitable put up at Previous Trafford a number of days in the past, Root was once more the batting bulwark for his facet. As within the first Check, Sri Lanka bowled effectively to place England’s first innings in peril with out fairly ending the job. England had been 130 for 4 after which 216 for six, just for Root to bolt collectively the 2 largest partnerships of the innings alongside Atkinson and Jamie Smith. Atkinson and Matthew Potts then added an unbroken stand of precisely 50 because the shadows lengthened.
This was not fairly a mid-2000s Lord’s shirt entrance however situations remained placid all through. Dhananjaya had reasoned that there’s “all the time swing within the first hour” when opting to bowl however, whereas there was occasional lateral motion to take care of, few of England’s high order may declare that to have been genuinely received out.
Ollie Pope, specifically, departed in a fashion which may have made for uncomfortable viewing again within the dressing room. Pope, England’s stand-in captain, had spoken earlier than the sport about separating his duties in main the group from the processes required to bat at No. 3; maybe he was wrongfooted by Dhananajaya’s determination on the toss, having been anticipating to be informed he was fielding, however the ungainly flap at Asitha Fernando advised he nonetheless has loads of work to do on that entrance.
England’s high three had been all again within the hutch earlier than lunch, and Asitha struck once more after the break. Harry Brook produced a volley of attacking pictures to place the hosts again on the entrance foot just for a marginal lbw name to this time go in Sri Lanka’s favour. Brook aimed an expansive drive at Asitha solely to be defeated by a touch of seam motion again in, with Reiffel agreeing that it might have hit leg stump.
A stand of 62 between Root and Smith helped the Lord’s crowd settle right into a extra applicable state of post-prandial leisure. Smith was largely watchful, regardless of selecting off the spinner Prabath Jayasuriya for 3 boundaries, earlier than being caught behind with tea approaching as he aimed a extra expansive drive at Milan Rathnayake.
Root had received off the mark with a 4 from his first ball however went about his enterprise in sometimes unobtrusive vogue. Aside from the Kumara lbw attraction, his one second of real nervousness got here when chopping Rathnayake simply previous off stump on 59; he edged the identical bowler between slip and gully within the following over. The nerves had been extra evident within the crowd as he bided his time for 12 balls on 99, earlier than opening the face to steer Kumara down to 3rd, punching the air as quickly because the ball had sped by means of the cordon.
Root finally departed attempting to reverse-ramp Rathnayake however, though the day ended with Atkinson and Potts taking liberties towards the second new ball, this was a stuttering effort from England. The brand new-look opening pair for this sequence produced their third consecutive stand within the 30s, earlier than Dan Lawrence edged tamely behind attempting to stroll down the pitch at Kumara. Ben Duckett regarded assured in making 40 from 47 balls, solely to reverse-swipe the fourth ball of spin within the match down the throat of deep level with 20 minutes to go till lunch.
Dhananjaya’s determination on the toss precipitated quite a lot of raised eyebrows across the floor because it basked in late August sunshine. When Duckett clipped three boundaries from Asitha’s second over of the morning, it appeared as if England had been within the temper to ram house the purpose about Lord’s being a “lookup, not down” floor. However Kumara, introduced into the facet for Vishwa Fernando, struck in his first over as Lawrence edged by means of to Nishan Madushka, deputising with the gloves after the blow to the hand sustained by Dinesh Chandimal within the first Check.
Pope’s common as Check captain then dipped from 6.00 to 4.33, as Asitha switched to the Nursery Finish and induced an ungainly pull throughout the road that took the highest edge and ballooned to a gleeful Dhananjaya at sq. leg.
Sri Lanka, who haven’t misplaced a Check in London since 1991, had their tails up, with Asitha and Kumara probing for openings whereas Rathnayake stored issues tight. Kumara was wholehearted, pushing the pace gun up in the direction of 90mph, and he might need had one other when bringing one down the slope into Root’s knee roll. The bowler bellowed an attraction, absolutely conscious of the effective margins concerned in umpire’s name: DRS duly had it clipping the highest of leg stump, so Reiffel’s not-out stood. On such margins did the day flip.
Alan Gardner is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo. @alanroderick
