Gus Atkinson got his name on the Lord’s honours board again with a five-wicket haul which helped secure a match and series win for England in the second Test against Sri Lanka.
Dimuth Karunaratne’s score of 55 helped Sri Lanka recover from the early loss of Prabath Jayasuriya in the morning session, but he was out shortly before lunch to leave the tourists 136-4 at the interval.
A sprightly 58 from Dinesh Chandimal ensured Sri Lanka kept chipping away at the improbable victory target of 483, yet his demise at the hands of Atkinson soon after a contentious DRS reprieve put his side on the back foot again.
The Surrey seamer went on to take 5-62 to go with his maiden Test century in England’s first innings, securing a comfortable 190-run win with a day to spare and giving the hosts an unassailable 2-0 series lead ahead of the final Test at The Oval.
Karunaratne and Chandimal lead Sri Lanka fightback
It took just seven overs for England to make a breakthrough on a morning which saw plenty of movement and bounce in the wicket for the seamers early on, with Chris Woakes dismissing nightwatchman Jayasuriya (4) thanks to a fine catch in the slips from Harry Brook.
Karunaratne, who had been subject of two unsuccessful DRS reviews by England and was dropped by Joe Root from a difficult chance in the slips on 21, held firm at the other end, though, and went on to reach his 38th Test half-century in the 35th over of the innings.
He was fortunate to avoid being run out by Jamie Smith just two balls later after Angelo Mathews pushed for a third run, yet the pair were able to put on a partnership of 55 which helped steady the ship.
Olly Stone’s switch to bowling from the Nursery End after starting an earlier spell at the Pavilion End yielded a result in the 47th over as a rising delivery was gloved by the left-hander and carried through to Smith to bring about his demise.
New batter Chandimal soon set about England’s attack, however, reaching his half-century from just 47 balls inside the first half-hour of the afternoon session, albeit doing so with a miscued shot which went behind him for four.
The fifth-wicket partnership came to an end on 59 when Mathews (36) clipped Bashir straight to cover fielder Woakes in the 59th over, and in the following over Chandimal had a huge let-off on 55 when he successfully overturned on-field umpire Joel Wilson’s decision of lbw with a review.
The decision by third umpire Chris Gaffaney that the right-hander had got the tiniest of edges with his bat first, due to a small spike on UltraEdge, left Woakes and Pope bemused as they did not feel the replay showed conclusively the ball had reached the bat at that point.
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Dinesh Chandimal’s impressive innings cames to an end as England edged closer to victory.
However, he was only able to add three more runs to his tally before he popped one up to short leg Dan Lawrence off a fuller delivery from Atkinson in the 66th over.
Atkinson takes another five-for
Two overs later, Atkinson had his third wicket as first-innings star Kamindu Mendis edged the right-armer to Ben Duckett in the slips with just four runs to his name, but a half-century stand for the eighth wicket between Dhananjaya de Silva and Milan Rathnayake saw Sri Lanka to 260-7 at tea.
England took the new ball as soon as it became available at the start of the evening session and an early opportunity went begging as Root dropped Rathnayake on 34 in the slips off Atkinson’s bowling two overs after the resumption of play.
However, the 26-year-old returned in his next to clean-bowl De Silva, who had reached his 50 in the first over after tea, and claimed the third five-for of his fledgling Test career when he had Rathnayake caught behind by Smith for 43.
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Chris Woakes picked up the final wicket as England beat Sri Lanka by 190 runs.
Woakes then wrapped up the match and series win for England when Lahiru Kumara’s slog was caught by Stone, with the final Test of the series to come at The Oval from Friday September 6, live on Sky Sports.
What they said
Player of the match and England bowler Gus Atkinson:
“Obviously, I couldn’t have asked for much more. To get on both honours boards is incredible. It will take a while to sink in.
“It is my first red-ball games at Lord’s and it has gone pretty well. I enjoy bowling with the slope, but it has just gone my way. Long may it continue.”
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Gus Atkinson gives his reaction after picking up the player of the match for his performance with bat and ball.
England captain Ollie Pope:
“Obviously, we are really happy to get the 2-0 up in the series and some very special individual performances this week.
“I think this week was very different to last in terms of modes of dismissal in the field and stuff like that. I feel at Lord’s you are always in the game with the slope, so it is just about getting creative and trying to find different catching positions.”
Watch the third and final Test of the series between England and Sri Lanka at The Oval, live on Sky Sports Cricket from 10am on Friday September 6 (first ball, 11am).
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