Sunday Sep 22, 2024
Sunday Sep 22, 2024
Saturday, 31 August 2024 00:41 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Kamindu Mendis continued his remarkable form with another half-century
Dimuth Karunaratne chops ball onto his stumps for 7
LORD’S: Sri Lanka has never lost a Test match in London (Lord’s or the Oval) since 1991, and that record of six Test draws is likely to come to an end in the second Test where Sri Lanka are on their backfoot and in danger of losing.
After England had rattled off 427 courtesy Joe Root’s 33rd Test hundred and Gus Atkinson’s maiden Test and first-class century, Sri Lanka gave a spineless batting display against some persistent line and length bowling from England to be shot out for 196 in their first innings. They trailed by 231 runs, but England did not enforce the follow-on but batted a second time to stretch their overall lead to 256. With three days of the Test remaining, England are in a great position to take a winning 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
If Sri Lanka had anything to smile about in this Test, it was the lion-hearted bowling performance of Asitha Fernando and the high-class batting skills of Kamindu Mendis.
Fernando with figures of 5/102 became only the second bowler from Sri Lanka to take five wickets and have his name engraved in the honours board at Lord’s after another fast bowler Rumesh Ratnayake who took 5/69 in the one-off Test in 1991.
Mendis once again stood tall. He was calm and serene when all the other batsmen around him struggled on a pitch where England had made 400 plus. Looking very solid and with clever and skilful batting of a high-class player Mendis went onto score 74 off 120 balls (8 fours, 3 sixes) before he ran out of partners. He marshalled partnerships of 31, 35 and 42 with Milan Rathnayake (19), Prabath Jayasuriya (8) and Lahiru Kumara (0 off 22 balls) respectively before eventually being last man out.
With another innings to go in this Test, Mendis who scored 113 in the first Test at Manchester is already one of seven batsmen to have aggregated 600-plus runs from the first five Tests (627 runs, avg. 89.57) alongside Sunil Gavaskar (831), George Headley (714), Harry Brooks (623), Devon Conway (623), Conrad Hunte (622) and Don Bradman (607).
Sri Lanka’s struggles in their top order batting continued as they slumped to 87-6 in the first 24 overs. After being 32-2 at lunch, five wickets fell in the afternoon session to leave Sri Lanka in tatters at 129/7 at tea. It was only the proficient batting of Mendis with the tail that got them to their final total. The way Mendis has contributed in the series, he seriously needs to be promoted up the order if Sri Lanka are to get the best out of him. At present at number 7 he is left to bat with the tail and take undue risks in doing so.
Gus Atkinson celebrates his maiden Test and first-class century
Asitha Fernando claimed five-wicket haul at Lord’s
England were vastly superior with the ball, getting a lot more out of the pitch than Sri Lanka did. All four of their seamers got themselves into the wickets with Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Olly Stone and Matthew Potts all sharing the spoils with two wickets apiece. They got the ball to nip around and bowled some cracking deliveries especially the one that got Angelo Mathews being the highlight. Sri Lanka didn’t help themselves either with some of the shots they played which has them staring down the barrel.
For Atkinson the magical summer continued as he followed his 10-wicket haul against the West Indies at Lord’s by scoring his maiden Test and first-class century to have his name written in the honours bowling as well as the batting board at Lord’s.
In his maiden summer of Test cricket Atkinson reached his century off 103 balls (11 fours, 4 sixes) with a four off Kumara, after coming to bat with England at 216-6. It was an innings of high quality and he received a standing ovation for his brilliant effort. For England it was a significant achievement to get to 400 plus through a combination of Joe Root and the lower order against lacklustre Sri Lanka bowling.
