Root hits record 34th England century against Sri Lanka

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Root hits record 34th England century against Sri Lanka

Joe Root chalked up a record 34th century – and second of the match – in Tests for England as the hosts moved closer to a series victory over Sri Lanka in the second test.

Root equalled Alastair Cook’s England record on Thursday and surpassed it at Lord’s on Saturday.

His latest ton, his seventh at Lord’s, was his fastest – off 111 deliveries – before he holed out for 103. He was the backbone of England’s 251, which left Sri Lanka needing a world record 483 to win.

Sri Lanka were left with seven sessions to either chase down the mammoth total or bat for a draw to tee up a decider at the Oval next week. They closed on 53-2 as bad light ended play early.

Only five other players in history have more hundreds than Root, whose father was in the crowd to watch him move alongside Sunil Gavaskar, Brian Lara, Younis Khan and Mahela Jayawardene on the all-time list.

Root is within 95 runs of Cook’s England benchmark 12,472 in tests.

It was another forgettable day for Ollie Pope, though.

While he reached double figures for the first time in four innings as the stand-in England captain, Pope was out for 17 to an ugly premeditated hack attempting to meet Sri Lanka’s short-ball ploy head-on.

Ben Duckett departed for 24, caught on the rebound by Angelo Mathews from Nishan Madushka’s parry, and Pope walked into Asitha Fernando’s bumper trap, picking out the lone off-side boundary rider at deep backward point.

Harry Brook was dropped on nine and made 37 before holing out off Prabath Jayasuriya, who had Jamie Smith lbw for 26 after he missed a sweep.

Chris Woakes chipped to extra cover while Gus Atkinson sliced an unconventional reverse pull to Rathnayake.

England’s lead climbed past 450 and after keeping the crowd waiting with 16 deliveries in the 90s, amid a short-ball barrage from Fernando, Root carved through vacant cover point for four to reach the milestone.

He was last man out, caught at deep square leg, but then caught his 199th and 200th Test catches after an early tea when Nishan Madushka and Pathum Nissanka edged to first slip off Atkinson and Olly Stone, respectively.

With light fading, the teams left the field shortly after 5 pm local time. Dimuth Karunaratne ended the day on 23 not out with nightwatcher Jayasuriya on 3.

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