This Test belongs to Joe Root after record-breaking ton against Sri Lanka

Second Test, Day 3: England 427 & 251 (Root 103| Fernando 3-52) lead Sri Lanka 196 & 53-2 (Karunaratne 23* | Stone 1-1) by 430 runs

LORD’S — Many great sporting events have been informally named after the players who dominated them. In football, we’ve had the Matthews and Gerrard FA Cup finals and in cricket Botham’s Ashes. Now we can add another – this second Test against Sri Lanka that will now always be intrinsically linked with the brilliance of Joe Root.

After dominating the first day at Lord’s with an innings of 143 that drew him level with Sir Alastair Cook on England’s all-time list of century makers, Root doubled down on day three to hit an historic, record-breaking 34^th Test hundred that now puts him out on his own as his country’s greatest batter.

Of that there is no doubt. And it didn’t need this latest masterclass to prove it. Root’s statistics, as Shakira might have once been alluding to, don’t lie.

Indeed, the Yorkshireman is a statistician’s dream – or nightmare for the ones who are particularly overworked – given how regularly he etches his name into the record books.

Root is already England’s all-time leading runscorer across formats by a country mile. His total of 19,792 is more than 4,000 ahead of Cook in second place.

This was the first time he had struck twin hundreds in a Test but this was also his seventh at Lord’s, taking him ahead of Graham Gooch and Michael Vaughan for the most at this ground.

As if he was waging a personal war on England and Essex greats after stripping Cook of his record, Root also overtook Gooch as the highest Test runscorer at Lord’s, moving past his mark of 2,015 during the course of this innings of 103.

And the prospect of more history to follow for Root is as inevitable as England winning this Test at some point on Sunday given Sri Lanka, chasing an impossible target of 483, stumbled to 53 for two by the time bad light brought a premature end to the day.

The next domino to fall in Root’s quest to tear up the record books is Cook’s England-record mark of 12,472. He needs 96 more to pass that mark to statistically become England’s most prolific Test batter. But his greatness is already assured.

That’s why Lord’s was rapt for almost the entirety of the third afternoon as Root hunted down history.

It was already a case of when not if England would secure their fifth Test win out of five this summer given they were already leading by more than 450 when Root entered the 90s.

After spending 12 balls stuck on 99 on day one, it took him 16 to move from 90 to 100 this time, with the former captain having to carefully marshal the strike with the tail before the shot that was heard around the shires – smearing Lahiru Kumara for four through the covers – sealed the historic hundred.

England, with Ollie Pope standing in for the injured Ben Stokes as captain, might have declared at that point. Root certainly motioned towards the balcony to ask the question. But it never came, the 33-year-old instead ending things himself when he was caught trying to hit Kumara for a six over square leg.

The hosts may have only made 251, with no other batter getting more than Harry Brook’s 37, but they were so far ahead after the first innings it didn’t really matter.

If the light had held, England might have fancied their chances of finishing things off inside three days. As it was, Sri Lanka only lost Nishan Madushka and Pathum Nissanka in the 20 overs of their second innings that were possible.

Inevitably, Root, stationed at slip, took both catches off the bowling of Gus Atkinson and Olly Stone.

He even bowled four overs as the bad light closed in and Pope was told he could only bowl spin. It would have been too perfect if Root had ripped through Sri Lanka with the ball as well.

Expect others to do that on the fourth day to wrap up a convincing win.

Moments of the day

Pope falls for the trap

Ollie Pope is in need of runs and he looked to have got over a shaky start that saw him survive a Sri Lanka review for lbw when he was on 12. But England’s stand-in captain was out on 17 to a shot that was even dumber than his first-innings dismissal as he fell to the first ball of Sri Lanka’s short ball trap when he was caught at deep point following a premeditated slog to Asitha Fernando.

Brook gets greedy

Harry Brook was dropped on nine after trying to slog sweep spinner Prabath Jayasuriya. Given license to up the ante with England looking for quick runs to extend their lead, Brook was on 37 from 35 balls before one big shot too many saw him hole out to Jayasuriya. It came towards the end of a morning that saw England go into lunch on 159 for four, a lead of 390.

Record breaker Root

Lord’s rose as one to salute a piece of history when Joe Root opened up his body and carted Lahiru Kumara through the covers for a four that saw him bring up a record 34^th Test century. Root spent 16 balls in the nervous 90s as he tried to dominate the strike with England eight wickets down and Sri Lanka putting men back on the boundary. But after levelling Sir Alastair Cook’s England record for hundreds in the first innings here he went past his former team-mate on a memorable third day.

Quote of the day

“He’s quite simply England’s greatest and it’s absolutely right he should have the record on his own. Take it in Joe, we are watching a genius.”

Sir Alastair Cook, on BBC Test Match Special, seconds after Joe Root broke his record for the most England Test centuries

Stat of the day

Only five men have scored more than Joe Root’s 34 Test hundreds – Sachin Tendulkar (51), Jacques Kallis (45), Ricky Ponting (41), Kumar Sangakkara (38), and Rahul Dravid (36).

Bazball-o-meter: 6/10

A succession of England batters getting out hitting out would have had the Bazball haters seething. But Pope’s refusal to declare once Root had got his hundred was weird and defensive. It’s like Bazball never existed.