England seal Sri Lanka series as Gus Atkinson adds five wickets to century
England, 427 & 251, beat Sri Lanka, 196 & 292, by 190 runs
First perfect Test summer for 20 years now possible
There was not a great deal of encouragement from the Lord’s pitch and a thin crowd made for a slightly sleepy Sunday. But by 5pm, after another five-wicket haul from the soaring comet that is Gus Atkinson, England had sealed a series win against Sri Lanka and set up the prospect of their first perfect Test summer for 20 years.
Not since 2004, when New Zealand and West Indies were swept aside by Michael Vaughan’s men, have England won every Test in a home season. Although they play one fewer these days, a 2-0 lead over Sri Lanka – secured with a 190-run victory in this second Test – to follow the 3-0 win against West Indies still presents a rare opportunity. Ollie Pope, two wins from two as stand-in captain but personally light on runs, will welcome the return to the Oval this week.
Gus Atkinson celebrates his five-wicket haul at Lord’s by holding aloft the ball after taking the wicket of Sri Lanka’s Milan Rathnayake.
‘Smashed it’: Atkinson earns Pope praise after taking 5-62 to join England elite
Like the Vaughan vintage, this is an England side hoping to build towards a climax down the line; a work in progress, rather than the finished article. They have refreshed their team – not least the bowling attack – and even with three first‑choice players lost to injury this series – Ben Stokes, Zak Crawley and Mark Wood – maintained winning ways. Their opponents this summer may sit on the wrong side of the sport’s titled global economy, but credit is still due.
It helps to have a batting galactico, of course, and Joe Root, the only ever‑present these past two years, was pretty celestial at Lord’s. Beyond the twin hundreds that took him to 34 overall and knocked Alastair Cook down to second on the list of Test centuries by an Englishman, most encouraging was the assertion that, aged 33 and out the other side of captaincy, there are plenty more miles left on the clock.
This match was also a continuation of Atkinson’s remarkable start to life as a Test cricketer. His 118 from No 8 in the first innings was no gunslinger’s knock by a chancy tailender, rather the crisp and proficient innings of a genuine batter. Beyond the peroxide tipped hair – perhaps a tribute to the pint of Guinness sunk by Anderson at the end of his farewell Test – he has proved to be unshowy and steely in character.
Back in the day job, Atkinson also maintained his hot own streak of claiming at least two wickets per innings since his debut in July. On a fourth day when wickets needed to be chiseled out – and Sri Lanka delivered a spirited performance that would have been far handier the first time around – with his figures of five for 62 from 16 overs the tourists were bowled out for 292 in 86.4 overs in their pursuit of an unlikely 483 to win.
After Chris Woakes had wrapped up the win by inducing a top-edge from Lahiru Kumara it was Atkinson, not Root, who was player of the match. The champagne was well earned, too, with Atkinson only the third England cricketer to score a century and claim a five-wicket haul in the same Test after Tony Greig and Ian Botham (even if Lord Beefy will doubtless point out he did it five times). Either way, the person who updates the Lord’s honors boards can probably etch Atkinson’s name with their eyes shut.
In truth, the result was already a formality at the start of play – one reason, to go with ticket prices, for the lack of walk-ups – and it was a case of how long the final eight wickets would take.
Ben Duckett
c Kumara b Jayasuriya
40 47 92 4 0 85.10
Dan Lawrence
c †KNM Fernando b Kumara
9 22 32 2 0 40.90
Ollie Pope (c)
c de Silva b AM Fernando
1 10 11 0 0 10.00
Joe Root
c Nissanka b Rathnayake
143 206 283 18 0 69.41
Harry Brook
lbw b AM Fernando
33 45 92 5 0 73.33
Jamie Smith †
c †KNM Fernando b Rathnayake
21 57 67 4 0 36.84
Chris Woakes
c AM Fernando b Kumara
6 27 37 1 0 22.22
Gus Atkinson
c Rathnayake b AM Fernando
118 115 174 14 4 102.60
Matthew Potts
c †KNM Fernando b AM Fernando
21 43 72 4 0 48.83
Olly Stone
c Mendis b AM Fernando
15 31 35 1 0 48.38
Shoaib Bashir
not out 7 10 9 1 0 70.00
Extras (b 8, lb 4, nb 1) 13
TOTAL
102 Ov
(RR: 4.18)
427
Fall of wickets: 1-33 (Dan Lawrence, 6.5 ov), 2-42 (Ollie Pope, 9.2 ov), 3-82 (Ben Duckett, 18.4 ov), 4-130 (Harry Brook, 30.5 ov), 5-192 (Jamie Smith, 48.6 ov), 6-216 (Chris Woakes, 58.6 ov), 7-308 (Joe Root, 77.3 ov), 8-393 (Matthew Potts, 93.3 ov), 9-420 (Gus Atkinson, 99.3 ov), 10-427 (Olly Stone, 101.6 ov) •
DRS
BOWLING O M R W ECON WD NB
Asitha Fernando
24 2 102
5
4.25 0 0
Milan Rathnayake
23 2 89
2
3.86 0 1
Lahiru Kumara
23 2 101
2
4.39 0 0
Prabath Jayasuriya
29 2 96
1
3.31 0 0
Kamindu Mendis
3 0 27 0 9.00 0 0
Sri Lanka 1st Innings
BATTING R B M 4s 6s SR
Nishan Madushka †
b Woakes
7 15 27 1 0 46.66
Dimuth Karunaratne
b Stone
7 26 41 1 0 26.92
Pathum Nissanka
c Potts b Stone
12 18 15 1 0 66.66
Angelo Mathews
b Potts
22 36 50 3 0 61.11
Dinesh Chandimal
c Lawrence b Atkinson
23 33 61 3 0 69.69
Dhananjaya de Silva (c)
c Brook b Potts
0 3 2 0 0 0.00
Kamindu Mendis
c Woakes b Atkinson
74 120 161 8 3 61.66
Milan Rathnayake
c †Smith b Woakes
19 14 30 4 0 135.71
Prabath Jayasuriya
b Shoaib Bashir
8 46 60 0 0 17.39
Lahiru Kumara
run out (Pope)
0 22 50 0 0 0.00
Asitha Fernando
not out 1 1 2 0 0 100.00
Extras (b 8, lb 13, nb 1, w 1) 23
TOTAL
55.3 Ov
(RR: 3.53)
196
Fall of wickets: 1-18 (Nishan Madushka, 6.2 ov), 2-32 (Dimuth Karunaratne, 9.1 ov), 3-35 (Pathum Nissanka, 9.6 ov), 4-83 (Angelo Mathews, 20.1 ov), 5-83 (Dhananjaya de Silva, 20.4 ov), 6-87 (Dinesh Chandimal, 23.1 ov), 7-118 (Milan Rathnayake, 28.6 ov), 8-153 (Prabath Jayasuriya, 43.6 ov), 9-195 (Lahiru Kumara, 54.6 ov), 10-196 (Kamindu Mendis, 55.3 ov) •
DRS
BOWLING O M R W ECON WD NB
Chris Woakes
13 4 21
2
1.61 1 0
Gus Atkinson
8.3 2 40
2
4.70 0 0
Olly Stone
13 0 70
2
5.38 0 1
Matthew Potts
11 4 19
2
1.72 0 0
Shoaib Bashir
7 1 21
1
3.00 0 0
Joe Root
3 0 4 0 1.33 0 0
England 2nd Innings
BATTING R B M 4s 6s SR
Ben Duckett
c Mathews b Rathnayake
24 38 54 2 0 63.15
Dan Lawrence
c †KNM Fernando b Kumara
7 12 27 1 0 58.33
Ollie Pope (c)
c Jayasuriya b AM Fernando
17 38 63 1 0 44.73
Joe Root
c Mendis b Kumara
103 121 192 10 0 85.12
Harry Brook
c KNM Fernando b Jayasuriya
37 36 39 4 1 102.77
Jamie Smith †
lbw b Jayasuriya
26 34 36 3 0 76.47
Chris Woakes
c Nissanka b Rathnayake
5 10 14 1 0 50.00
Gus Atkinson
c Kumara b AM Fernando
14 12 16 2 0 116.66
Matthew Potts
c †Chandimal b AM Fernando
2 9 10 0 0 22.22
Olly Stone
c Nissanka b Kumara
7 16 24 1 0 43.75
Shoaib Bashir
not out 1 2 6 0 0 50.00
Extras (lb 5, nb 1, w 2) 8
TOTAL
54.3 Ov
(RR: 4.60)
251
Fall of wickets: 1-22 (Dan Lawrence, 5.1 ov), 2-36 (Ben Duckett, 10.3 ov), 3-69 (Ollie Pope, 18.1 ov), 4-127 (Harry Brook, 27.4 ov), 5-171 (Jamie Smith, 37.1 ov), 6-196 (Chris Woakes, 40.5 ov), 7-221 (Gus Atkinson, 44.4 ov), 8-227 (Matthew Potts, 46.6 ov), 9-250 (Olly Stone, 52.6 ov), 10-251 (Joe Root, 54.3 ov) •
DRS
BOWLING O M R W ECON WD NB
Asitha Fernando
13 0 52
3
4.00 2 1
Lahiru Kumara
12.3 0 53
3
4.24 0 0
Milan Rathnayake
9 1 36
2
4.00 0 0
Prabath Jayasuriya
20 2 105
2
5.25 0 0
Sri Lanka 2nd Innings (T: 483 Runs)
BATTING R B M 4s 6s SR
Nishan Madushka †
c Root b Atkinson
13 25 29 1 0 52.00
Dimuth Karunaratne
c †Smith b Stone
55 129 201 7 0 42.63
Pathum Nissanka
c Root b Stone
14 24 31 3 0 58.33
Prabath Jayasuriya
c Brook b Woakes
4 41 50 0 0 9.75
Angelo Mathews
c Woakes b Shoaib Bashir
36 91 135 3 0 39.56
Dinesh Chandimal
c Lawrence b Atkinson
58 62 76 11 0 93.54
Dhananjaya de Silva (c)
b Atkinson
50 71 109 7 0 70.42
Kamindu Mendis
c Duckett b Atkinson
4 5 7 0 0 80.00
Milan Rathnayake
c †Smith b Atkinson
43 56 83 7 0 76.78
Lahiru Kumara
c Stone b Woakes
10 13 16 2 0 76.92
Asitha Fernando
not out 0 3 4 0 0 0.00
Extras (b 4, lb 1) 5
TOTAL
86.4 Ov
(RR: 3.36)
292
Fall of wickets: 1-19 (Nishan Madushka, 7.1 ov), 2-43 (Pathum Nissanka, 13.6 ov), 3-60 (Prabath Jayasuriya, 26.2 ov), 4-115 (Dimuth Karunaratne, 46.4 ov), 5-174 (Angelo Mathews, 58.5 ov), 6-192 (Dinesh Chandimal, 65.1 ov), 7-200 (Kamindu Mendis, 67.2 ov), 8-273 (Dhananjaya de Silva, 83.1 ov), 9-288 (Milan Rathnayake, 85.3 ov), 10-292 (Lahiru Kumara, 86.4 ov) •
DRS
BOWLING O M R W ECON WD NB
Chris Woakes
19.4 8 46
2
2.33 0 0
Gus Atkinson
16 4 62
5
3.87 0 0
Shoaib Bashir
23 1 78
1
3.39 0 0
Joe Root
4 1 9 0 2.25 0 0
Matthew Potts
11 2 34 0 3.09 0 0
Olly Stone
12 0 56
2
4.66 0 0
Dan Lawrence
1 0 2 0 2.00 0 0