England took an insurmountable 2-0 lead in the Test series against Sri Lanka with a hard-fought 190-run victory at Lord’s. It was their fifth win in a row this summer and second under the incumbent captain, Ollie Pope.
Gus Atkinson, who showed his batting caliber with a century in the first innings, kept up the good work in the second with a five-wicket haul that helped bowl Sri Lanka out for 292. The victory tailgated the Tea break, with the new ball producing three quick wickets. Dhananjaya de Silva, who crafted his 16th Test fifty, played on while Milan Rathnayake nicked behind. Chris Woakes applied the finishing touches with an off-pace delivery to Lahiru Kumara.
Atkinson’s performance puts him in elite company as an allrounder, making him only the third England Men’s player to score a hundred and take a five-wicket haul in the same Test.
The bulk of the damage was done by England in the afternoon but the second session started with a spate of boundaries from Dinesh Chandimal, the batter finding the middle of the bat against Shoaib Bashir’s offspin even if he looked ill at ease against Chris Woakes. The pacer bowled a probing six-over spell but it proved to be fruitless toil for the seamer. Chandimal, meanwhile, went on to compile a half-century off 42 balls, the fastest for Sri Lanka at Lord’s.
He added a half-century stand for the fifth wicket but England struck soon with the wicket of Angelo Mathews. It was a clever set-up by Shoaib Bashir, who went round the wicket and inveigled a chip to mid-off.
Chandimal was finally undone by the man of the moment, Gus Atkinson, when he inside-edged onto his pad and proffered a catch to short leg. The pacer dealt another blow in his next over as the in-form Kamindu Mendis departed cheaply.
Although Dhananjaya de Silva and Milan Rathnayake joined forces for a fifty partnership for the eighth wicket, in the end the islanders were well beaten, going down by 190 runs inside four days.
Earlier in the morning session, England reduced Sri Lanka to 136/4 despite a valiant half-century from Dimuth Karunaratne, whose dismissal just before the break pegged Sri Lanka back. Karunaratne and Angelo Mathews had earlier steadied the ship with a 50-run stand after Prabath Jayasuriya fell early. England’s bowlers, led by Olly Stone, capitalized on key moments to put Sri Lanka through the wringer.
Another one down!
We're chipping away at Lord's 👊 pic.twitter.com/ae0uTeXLWZ
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) September 1, 2024
