Gus Atkinson continued his Lord’s love affair by taking five wickets as England thrashed Sri Lanka by 190 runs in the second Test 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 Atkinson, who scored his maiden first-class hundred in England’s first-innings 427, led the attack with 5-62. Player-of-the-match Atkinson secured a fifth mention on the dressing room honours boards in just his second Test at Lord’s after taking 12 wickets on England debut against the West Indies in July. (

He also became just the third England cricketer after Tony Greig and Ian Botham to score a century and take five wickets in an innings of the same Test.

Atkinson followed India’s Vinoo Mankad (against England in 1952) and Botham (against Pakistan in 1978) as the only men to have achieved that double at Lord’s.

The 26-year-old 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.

“To get on both honours boards is incredible,” Atkinson told Sky Sports. “It will take a while to sink in.”

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 have little time to regroup before the third Test at The Oval starts on Friday.

De Silva admitted he had erred in opting to field on a good batting pitch after winning the toss.

“Definitely. I got it wrong,” he told the BBC, before adding: “We have got to improve on the first innings whether we bat or bowl first, that’s what I will be telling my boys is that we’ve got to start better.”

Sri Lanka resumed Sunday on 53-2, with the odds 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.

But Root — who on Saturday had taken his 200th Test catch — reprieved Karunaratne when dropping a tough one-handed slip chance from the opener’s edged cut off Atkinson.

Stone strikes

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 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.

Chandimal counter-attacked early in the afternoon on his way to a dashing 42-ball fifty including 40 runs in boundaries before Atkinson had him caught at short leg off bat and pad.

Kamindu Mendis, boasting a colossal Test batting average of 92 following his third hundred in four Tests at Old Trafford, had made 74 in Sri Lanka’s meagre first-innings 196.

But the 25-year-old left-hander, again batting low down the order, fell for just four on Sunday when caught in the slips off Atkinson.

Mendis’s exit left Sri Lanka, who have now not won any of their nine Tests at Lord’s, slipping towards defeat at 200-7.

De Silva kept England waiting before playing on to Atkinson, who then had Milan Rathnayake caught behind to complete his five-wicket haul.

Chris Woakes had the final say when Lahiru Kumara holed out to Stone at mid-on.

England vs Sri Lanka 2nd Test, Day 4 Live: England in pole position to win second Test vs Sri Lanka© AFP

Joe Root set an England record of 34 Test centuries as Sri Lanka were left with a mammoth chase to win the second Test at Lord’s on Saturday. Root’s 103, the star batsman’s second hundred of the match after he made 143 in the first innings, took England to a second-innings total of 251 all out on the third day. That left Sri Lanka needing 483 to level this three-Test series at 1-1 following England’s five-wicket win at Old Trafford last week. Root was last man out after edging ahead of retired England opener Alastair Cook‘s mark of 33 Test centuries.

And having made the quickest century of his 145-Test career, off just 111 balls, the 33-year-old Root then held two catches at first slip before bad light ended play for the day.

Sri Lanka were 53-2 at stumps, needing 430 more runs in an unlikely quest to end a run of six successive Test defeats by England.

His seventh Test hundred at Lord’s gave Root sole possession of the record for the most Test centuries at the ‘Home of Cricket’ he had shared with his fellow former England captains Graham Gooch and Michael Vaughan.

It was also the first time Root had made hundreds in both innings of a Test, the Yorkshireman joining the West Indies’ George Headley, Gooch and Vaughan as the only batsmen to have achieved that feat at Lord’s.

“That was good fun,” Root told the BBC after the close. “It was obviously a nice situation when you are far ahead in the game. But you want to drive it forward and get it into as strong a position as possible.”

He added: “It doesn’t mean you can’t score runs if everything isn’t perfect and this is something I have learned. There are other ways you can be effective, you can rotate the strike, get a few boundaries away and it does get easier.”

Root was embraced by his father, Matt, as he returned to the pavilion after the finish of his innings.

“Very proud and nice to share a moment with my dad walking off the field,” he said.

England resumed on 25-1, already 256 runs ahead, after dismissing Sri Lanka for 196 in reply to their first-innings 427.

Pope falls cheaply again

Ollie Pope, two not out overnight, ended a run of three single-figure scores since succeeding the injured Ben Stokes as England captain at the start of this series.

But Pope, who prior to this match had spoken about the difficulties of balancing the responsibility of captaincy with his role as a No 3 batsman, gave his wicket away on 17.

Asitha Fernando dropped short and Pope backed away, only for his square slash to fly straight to Prabath Jayasuriya at deep point.

Harry Brook was dropped on nine when Nishan Madushka dropped a routine catch following a top-edged slog sweep off left-arm spinner Jayasuriya.

Jayasuriya did dismiss Brook for 37, with Madushka making no mistake at deep midwicket, and had Jamie Smith lbw for 26 after the wicketkeeper missed a sweep.

The serene Root, however, twice swept and then reverse-swept Jayasuriya for three fours in an over.

After Gus Atkinson, fresh from his maiden first-class century of 118 in the first innings, and Matthew Potts both fell in quick succession, Root — then 88 not out — risked running out of partners before he reached three figures.

But Olly Stone held firm, with an elated Root going to his hundred when he cut Lahiru Kumara for a 10th four before he holed out off the paceman.

That left Sri Lanka needing to make history of their own, with the highest fourth-innings total to win a match in 147 years of Test history the West Indies’ 418-7 against Australia at St John’s in 2002/03. The corresponding record at Lord’s is the West Indies’ 344-1 against England in 1984.

Although the floodlights were on, Pope deployed frontline spinner Shoaib Bashir and Root’s part-time off-breaks in a bid to stop the match being halted for bad light.

But the umpires did let England’s quicks bowl as Atkinson had Madushka (13) edging to Root before the injury-plagued Stone, in his first Test for three years, removed Pathum Nissanka (14) in similar fashion.

File image of England Cricket Team.© AFP

Sri Lanka will be without a left-arm fast-bowling option at Lord’s.© Instagram