England continued their unbeaten start in Test cricket this summer as they sealed another series win. Without two of their key players, captain Ben Stokes and Zach Crawley, England made light work of Sri Lanka. Gus Atkinson and Joe Root both starred as they reached their own personal milestones.
England thrash Sri Lanka
England thrashed Sri Lanka by 190 runs as the three Lions dominated proceedings at Lords. Having been sent into bat by Sri Lanka, Ollie Pope’s side was reeling at 216/6 with only the tail left. However, a magnificent partnership between Joe Root (143) and Gus Atkinson (118) propelled England above the three-hundred mark. A series of partnerships with the tail helped England finish 427 as Sri Lanka bowler Asitha Fernando took five wickets for the visitors.
In reply, the Sri Lanka batsmen struggled to form any partnerships as wickets fell at regular intervals. A poor start led to both openers being dismissed by Chris Woakes and Olly Stone. Former captain Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal led a mini-recovery. A beauty of a delivery by Mathew Potts then dismissed Mathews. Sri Lanka captain Dhanjaya Da Silva was next in and didn’t fare better. He was denied three balls into his innings. The visitors collapsed to 196, with Kamindu Mendis (74) the only batsman to offer any resistance.
England could have enforced the follow-on, but Pope chose not to as England began their second innings. The hosts finished on 251, with Sri Lanka needing to chase a world record of 482 runs to level the series. Again, Joe Root was magnificent, scoring his second century in the match.
Sri Lanka fared much better than in their first innings. Four of their batsmen made half-centuries, and the visitors finished on 292. Gus Atkinson took another five-wicket haul, continuing his impressive start to test match cricket. With the completion of this test, England had an unassailable 2-0 lead. The final Test will take place at the Oval.
Joe Root is England’s greatest Test match player
Joe Root’s legend continues to grow with every test match. This summer, in particular, the Yorkshireman looks in fine form. He finished as the top run scorer in the West Indies series and is at the top of the standings against Sri Lanka.
England have had many fine players in test match cricket. The list is endless, Alistair Cook, Andrew Strauss, and Ian Bell, to name a few, but Joe Root has surpassed them all. The only formality left for Joe Root is to pass Cook’s record of 12,472 test runs to become England’s highest run scorer in this format. Whilst Root is only ninety-five runs behind Cook, the question remains: can he achieve it in the final game of the summer?
The Summer of Gus Atkinson
Gus Atkinson has had the summer of a lifetime. The Surrey player enjoyed a memorable debut at Lords, taking seven wickets against the West Indies. Having taken twenty-two wickets against the Windies, Atkinson was named player of the series. Blessed with extreme pace and accuracy, Atkinson settled quickly into Test cricket.
While people may have doubted Gus Atkinson’s ability to perform in Test cricket, the results are there. Dubbed a white ball specialist, many doubted Atkinson would succeed in the game’s longer format. The doubters seemed to have vanished, with Atkinson only in his fifth Test for England.
The only question that remained was whether Atkinson could maintain this form. Of course he could, the 24 year old has scored his maiden century, his first in any List A cricket. Atkinson also took his third five-wicket haul and was named player of the match. Having only played at Lords twice Atkinson is on both batting and bowling honour boards at Lords a feat achieved by only ten other cricketers. As the summer of Test cricket finishes, it remains to be seen if Atkinson is thriving in England’s winter tour of Pakistan and New Zealand.