Was it brave or a heart break decision by Sri Lanka to insert England beneath clear blue skies at Lord’s to bat first. As Joe Root peeled off his sixth Test hundred at the grand old ground, the verdict erred towards the latter. Gus Atkinson added to Sri Lanka’s pain with a maiden Test half-century and, although the bowlers toiled manfully until late in the day to repay the faith shown in them by their captain, Dhananjaya de Silva, England had grappled their way into an increasingly sturdy position by End of Day 1.
After Joe Root, there was daylight on the England batting card – and Dhananjaya might rue the inability of Lahiru Kumara to persuade Paul Reiffel to raise his finger to an lbw appeal when Joe Root was on 11, with the DRS returning a verdict of umpire’s call. The next-highest score was Atkinson’s unbeaten 74 from No. 8, with his 92-run stand alongside Joe Root the chief reason that England did not have what looked a perfectly respectable batting rug pulled from under them.
Pitch and Toss
The pitch at Lord’s is expected to be seamer-friendly. As there is a good amount of bounce and seam with the new ball. The curator generally offers a green top in tests, which increases the interest of the pacers from both sides. The Lord’s Cricket Ground in London will be expected to provide considerable assistance to fast bowlers. Batters will have to see off the new-ball threat in a bid to entertain chances of playing a long innings. The captain winning the toss will likely opt to bat first, considering the overall track record of the venue.
Sri Lanka skipper Dhananjaya De Silva won the toss and chose to field first with Pathum Nissanka coming in for Kusal Mendis. English skipper Ollie Pope batting first made one change replacing Mark Wood with Olly Stone.
Day 1 : Morning Session : Sri Lanka take early advantage with timely strikes
The morning session on day one of the second Test at Lord’s belonged to Sri Lanka who managed to pick up three English scalps after having won the toss on a sunny morning in London. Sri Lankan skipper Dhananjaya de Silva’s decision to bowl was met with mixed reactions.. However, his bowlers vindicated his decision with a fairly disciplined effort, led by comeback man Lahiru Kumara. The visitors were also helped by England’s batters who were guilty of loose strokes
There was a hint of swing and seam on offer, as you’d expect on the first day of a Test in England but it wasn’t anything extravagant. Ben Duckett and Daniel Lawrence started off steadily as the Lankan seamers initially took time to get their radar right.
Lawrence was then set up beautifully by Kumara who got one to shape away after a series of in dippers had forced the England opener to shuffle across the sticks, only to feather an edge. Stand-in skipper Ollie Pope’s dismal series continued as he mistimed a short ball against Asitha Fernando to give the tourists a double strike.
Duckett, meanwhile, started to look assured at the crease with his typically positive brand of cricket. The left-hander struck a few sweetly-timed boundaries and in the company of Joe Root, appeared to be on course to seeing England through to lunch without further damage. That’s when the introduction of spin gave Sri Lanka a massive breakthrough.
It took only four deliveries for Prabhat Jayasuriya to strike, as Duckett’s favourites reverse sweep brought about his downfall, picking out the strategic deep point fielder to perfection. Harry Brook along with Joe Root then saw the session through but it’s Sri Lanka who take the morning’s honours.
Having steered England past the winning post at Old Trafford a few days ago, Joe Root was again the batting bulwark for his side. As in the first Test, Sri Lanka bowled well to put England’s first innings in peril without quite finishing the job. England were 130 for 4 and then 216 for 6, only for Joe Root to bolt together the two biggest partnerships of the innings alongside Atkinson and Jamie Smith. Atkinson and Matthew Potts then added an unbroken stand of exactly 50 as the shadows lengthened.
This was not quite a mid-2000s Lord’s shirtfront but conditions remained placid throughout. Dhananjaya had reasoned that there is “always swing in the first hour” when opting to bowl but, while there was occasional lateral movement to deal with, few of England’s top order could claim that to have been genuinely gotten out.
Ollie Pope, in particular, departed in a manner that might have made for uncomfortable viewing back in the dressing room. Pope, England’s stand-in captain, had spoken before the game about separating his duties in leading the team from the processes required to bat at No. 3; perhaps he was wrongfooted by Dhananjaya’s decision at the toss, having been expecting to be told he was fielding, but the ungainly flap at Asitha Fernando suggested he still has plenty of work to do on that front.
England’s top three were all back in the hutch before lunch, and Asitha struck again after the break. Harry Brook produced a volley of attacking shots to put the hosts back on the front foot only for a marginal lbw call to this time go in Sri Lanka’s favour. Brook aimed an expansive drive at Asitha only to be defeated by a hint of seam movement back in, with Reiffel agreeing that it would have hit leg stump.
Day 1 : Post Lunch Session : Sri Lanka chip away amid Joe Root’s defiance
Sri Lanka continued to stay on top on the opening day of the second Test against England at Lord’s. After a strong morning session, the visitors consolidated their gains with another determined effort in the afternoon where they struck twice to keep England’s progress in check. Joe Root (81*), meanwhile, motored along seamlessly to yet another Test fifty and is looking on course for the three-figure mark but has seen his partners all depart after getting to starts.
The second session started with a flurry of runs as Harry Brook (33) counter-punched with four boundaries in the first five overs of the session.
Just when Brook looked like he was about to go to the next gear, Asitha Fernando broke the threatening partnership with a sharp inswinger to trap England’s no.5 LBW. In walked Manchester’s hero, Jamie Smith, and another promising partnership started to flourish with Root as the duo went about blunting Sri Lanka’s accurate bowling.
As has been the trend all day, Sri Lanka once again struck at a time when England were seemingly in cruise control, this time through Milan Rathnayake who had Smith (21) nicking off. The surface has played sportingly up till now, offering a bit for everyone. Batting has gotten easier as the batters have spent time in the middle but like the dismissals have shown, a minor lapse of concentration or misfiring shot selection is enough to bring the bowlers into play.
A stand of 62 between Joe Root and Smith helped the Lord’s crowd settle into a more appropriate state of post-prandial relaxation. Smith was largely watchful, despite picking off the spinner Prabhat Jayasuriya for three boundaries, before being caught behind with tea approaching as he aimed a more expansive drive at Milan Rathnayake.
Joe Root had got off the mark with a four from his first ball but went about his business in typically unobtrusive fashion. Other than the Kumara lbw appeal, his one moment of genuine anxiety came when chopping Rathnayake just past off stump on 59; he edged the same bowler between slip and gully in the following over.
Day 1 : Post Tea Session : Joe Root, Atkinson put England in the box seat
Joe Root’s historic 33rd Test ton, the joint-most by an England batter equalling Sir Alastair Cook, and a career-best unbeaten fifty from Gus Atkinson helped England steal the thunder on the opening day of the second Test against Sri Lanka at Lord’s. The visitors were on top for a major part of the day and even started the final session with an early breakthrough of Chris Woakes but Root and Atkinson then produced a counterattack that left the Lankans stunned.
As the ball got softer, batting did get easier with the surface being on the slower side. However, Sri Lanka didn’t help their cause by bowling without a solid plan after Woakes’ dismissal. Their only ploy was to stick to hitting the top of off and Atkinson responded with aggression, unfurling some punchy drives and also lofting the spinners for sixes. It was just the support Root was craving for as the premier batter continued his effortless stay at the crease to pile up yet another hundred at Lord’s.
It took Joe Root’s trademark reverse ramp shot, a stroke that he had barely used in recent Tests, to bring about his downfall due to the lack of pace off the surface. Sri Lanka’s hopes of then cleaning up the tail were dashed as Atkinson continued to hold firm against the second new ball with Matthew Potts also showing strong support. The pacers also seemed to have gone flat after an excellent 60-odd overs earlier in the day when they used the conditions to optimal effect.
Stand-in skipper Ollie Pope and Daniel Lawrence failed to get going but Ben Duckett, Harry Brook and Jamie Smith were all guilty of throwing away starts on a surface where batting was more about just concentration than a lot of demons in the surface. Root was flawless while Atkinson rode his luck with a calculated assault to put the home side in front.
The visitors would have hoped to restrict England to a below-par total at Woakes’ dismissal but for the second game running, they weren’t able to close out the lower order. Lahiru Kumara in his comeback game impressed, as did Asitha Fernando and Milan Rathnayake but the trio lost their bite in the final session.
Road Ahead on Day 2 for England and Sri Lanka
England pocket the final session and end the day with their noses ahead. Inserted to bat on a sunny day, the hosts lost three wickets in the morning session although there wasn’t too much assistance for the pacers. Lawrence chased a wide ball to nick off, Pope fell to short ball and Duckett holed out while trying to reverse-sweep.
A couple of partnerships were building in the post-lunch session but Sri Lanka managed to chip away as they picked up two more wickets in that phase. And when Woakes was bounced out for 6, England were 216/6 and Dhananjaya’s decision to bowl didn’t seem like a bad move. But Root and Atkinson bailed their team out of trouble with a 92-run stand for the 7th wicket.
Root got off the mark with a boundary off the very first ball, batted with a lot of conviction against some disciplined bowling, wasn’t perturbed by the events at the other end and notched up his 33rd Test hundred – thereby levelling Sir Alastair Cook for the most Test centuries by an England batsman.
Against the run of play and with the second new ball not too far away, he got out playing his famed reverse-scoop. Sri Lanka couldn’t capitalise on that wicket as they leaked runs with the second new ball. Atkinson raised his maiden Test half-ton and forged an unbeaten fifty stand with Potts.
Root’s 143 took him level with Alastair Cook on 33 Test centuries for England; during the course of his innings, he overtook Cook for most Test runs scored in England (and Wales) – and it is now surely only a matter of weeks, if not days, before he passes Cook’s overall mark for his country. Once the engraver has done his work, no one will have more entries on the batting honours board at Lord’s than Root, Graham Gooch and Michael Vaughan.