Atkinson’s century record after taking root at Lord’s

Lahiru Kumara’s delivery was delivered at long on by Gus Atkinson for a boundary. He then raised his hands in a simple celebration. At this point, his England teammates and coaching staff began to greet him from the dressing room. Along with the Lord stood up and oved. Batting in the eighth over, Atkinson scored a historic century. Prior to this, the last time Stuart Broad scored a century for England in the same position was in 2010.

With this, Atkinson started the fifth Test of his international career. However, at the same time, he had twice been included in the honorary board of the elite field of cricket, namely 5 wickets per innings in a Test match and 10 wickets in a match. This time he also made history as a batsman. Atkinson is claimed to be the fastest person to get to the main board three times. The 26-year-old pacer scored a century in 103 balls. On this basis, England built a big capital in the first innings of the second match against Sri Lanka.

Finally, Atkinson’s innings stopped at 118 runs. He hit 14 fours and 4 sixes in 115 balls. Prior to this, he was famous for another record in the Rathi-Maharthi partnership. So far, five people have scored hundreds and 10 wickets in Test matches at the famous cricket home of Lord’s, and Atkinson is the sixth in the record. The others are – England’s Gabby Allen, Australia’s Keith Miller, England’s Ian Botham, Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes. However, only Atkinson (2024) and Botham (1974) have scored 10 runs and 10 wickets in the same season at this venue.

Earlier, things were not going well for England before tail-end batsman Atkinson reached the crease. The home team lost 6 wickets for 216 runs. Joe Root was the only batsman recognised at the crease. The experienced star batsman formed a 92-run partnership with Atkinson. That was basically the basis of the big run for England. Root stopped at 143 after playing a brilliant innings. He hit 18 fours in 206 balls in his innings. Apart from this, Root currently has the highest 33rd Test century among cricketers. This match with four hot players so far is worth watching, followed by Kane Williamson (32), Steve Smith (32) and Virat Kohli (29).

The hosts are in the lead after winning the first Test of the ongoing England-Sri Lanka series. In the second Test, the English team failed to hit the ball with the bat. Against the Lankans, they started aggressively as well. As a result, wickets were lost quickly as usual, with Lahiru Kumara dismissing opener Dan Lawrence (9) for 33 runs. England captain Ollie Pope then managed just one run, a victim of Asitha Fernando. Although Ben Duckett (40), Jamie Smith (33) and Harry Brooke (21) settled in, they could not make a big innings.

But Root and Atkinson did not put the hosts in danger. The duo scored double centuries in the first innings and capitalised heavily. England scored 427 runs before being bowled out on the second day of the Test. Asita took the maximum wicket of five for the Lankans. Apart from them, Lahiru and Milan Ratnanai took two wickets each.

NASA