England’s victory over a gallant but fundamentally inferior Sri Lanka – their fifth victory of the summer – contained a number of memorable features.
One moment that had considerable significance was Dhananjaya de Silva’s decision to field after winning the toss. Maybe the result would have been the same. To be fair, when Chris Woakes fell to Lahiru Kumara, the score was 216 for six and the decision did not look a bad one at all. But the Sri Lankan bowlers tired after tea and England basically controlled the match after that. You can’t have three bad sessions in a row and expect to win a Test match. That is simply not how Test cricket works. De Silva admitted after the match that he had made the wrong decision.
Sri Lanka’s ultimate target of 483 was of course illusory for practical purposes. But was it? Batting is their strong suit (there are county sides with bowling attacks as strong as theirs). Dinuth Karunaratne has been the most successful opener in Test cricket in the last five years and has tended to make his important runs in his side’s second innings. Angelo Mathews – who seems to be becoming everybody’s favourite cricketer as he gets older – has had many memorable moments in England. Dinesh Chandimal, who played splendidly at Old Trafford, is the only Sri Lankan to have made a Test double century against Australia. De Silva is a sound and proven Test player. All these batters average over 40. The rookie, Kamindu Mendis, looks the best of the lot: he averages around 90 and made a superb century at Old Trafford. Could they actually do it?
Well, time wasn’t an issue. They had a session – interrupted by bad light – and two whole days to get the runs. But everything else was against them. Cricket’s lore was against them. And, as with so much in the game it all comes down to what is in the mind really. England’s attack is respectable but it’s not one of Test cricket’s strongest ever combinations. But Sri Lanka had been mentally battered from what had gone before.
Their plight was somehow accentuated by the noticeably sparse attendance on a gloriously sunlit Sunday. MCC officials spoke about the problems of marketing this series compared with the West Indies series. It will be interesting to see attendances at The Oval for the third Test. One thing is for sure. As has been pointed out by Fazeer Mohammed and Nick Brookes, when teams like West Indies and Sri Lanka come to England, it is not a level playing field. Sri Lanka have played nine Tests in two years, mostly in Asia; they were given one practice match. The Oval Test will be England’s eleventh this year, with several more to come.
Now back to those memorable features. As mentioned, Woakes was out on the first day with the score on 216 for six and honours more or less even. In came Gus Atkinson who proceeded to play a most remarkable innings of 118, his first century in first- class cricket, hitting four sixes and 14 fours. It really was a class innings and it helped reshape the match, enabling England to reach an impressive 427.
Atkinson was of course already on the Honours Board at Lord’s following his heroics against West Indies. And he wasn’t finished yet; he took five wickets in Sri Lanka’s second innings, to become only the third England player to score a century and take five wickets in an innings in the same Test; the others are Tony Greig, and Ian Botham (who did it five times).
Gus Atkinson was deservedly the player of the match. Well, it must have been a close run thing, because Joe Root achieved the relatively rare feat of scoring two centuries in the same match. And these were not just any old centuries, if there be such a thing in Test cricket. His 143 in the first innings was his 33rd in Tests, equalling Alastair Cook’s England record. His 103 in the second innings took him past that record.
He also went past Graham Gooch to become the highest run scorer in Tests at Lord’s. He overtook Michael Vaughan as the leading Test century maker at Lord’s. To cap a memorable game he took his 200th catch, snaffling another record from Cook.
As he always does when at his best, Root always looked utterly at ease, except perhaps when in the 90s in his first innings. Otherwise the runs just seem to come almost without one noticing.
Figures like Root’s really don’t lie. Cook spoke generously about Root’s hunger, his steel and his genius. This is high praise indeed. But there remains one area where Cook conquered and his successor remains at the foothills: Root has yet to make a Test century in Australia.