Joe Root puts England on top against Sri Lanka with record-equalling century

After facing 12 tense deliveries, with the crowd eagerly watching and nervously fidgeting in their seats, Joe Root skillfully directed the ball past the empty fourth slip position. As the ball crossed the boundary rope, he raised his bat in celebration, marking his 33rd Test century and securing a place in history.

Root has once again reached the top spot in the Test batting rankings this season. His current run of good form has become even more impressive, as he matched Alastair Cook's record for Test centuries by an Englishman and tied with Graham Gooch and Michael Vaughan for the sixth century at Lord’s. In a touching moment, Root paid tribute to his late batting coach, Graham Thorpe, by looking up at the sky.

Harry Brook boldly referred to Root as "grandad" recently, but at 33 years old, he sees himself more as "Peter Pan" in the new England team. There are exciting prospects ahead, such as aiming for his first century in Australia in 18 months or even attempting to break Sachin Tendulkar's record of 15,921 Test runs. Root currently has 3,647 runs to go.

That's all for now, and on the first day of the second Test match, Sri Lanka surprised everyone by choosing to bowl first in good weather conditions. England was thankful for another impressive performance by Root, which was important and very enjoyable to watch.

Prior to Peter Pan's arrival, there was a performance from the top order that resembled a group of lost boys. Three easy wickets were given away in the morning, putting pressure on the lower order to step up. It was crucial for a middle-order batsman to come through with a significant innings.

At the end of the day, England had scored a strong 358 for seven after two competitive sessions followed by a burst of late runs. Root got out 45 minutes before the end, making 143 runs off 206 balls. Some people may criticize his shot selection, especially the reverse ramp. However, like in previous instances against New Zealand and India, Root may argue that it was a matter of execution, not intention.

Over at the other end, it was time to celebrate as Gus Atkinson walked out with the score at a tricky 216 for six. He batted beautifully and scored an unbeaten 74 from 81 balls, helping to contribute 158 runs after tea. Wisden, the prestigious cricket publication, likely has one of their top five cricketers of the year already chosen. Atkinson, who has taken 26 wickets in his first Test summer, surprised everyone by hitting five fours and four powerful sixes. Matt Potts, who has also been working hard on his batting skills this summer, will join him at the crease in the morning with 20 runs to his name.

In addition to some impressive fielding from Sri Lanka, Lahiru Kumara put pressure on Root and made sure he stayed focused, especially during the nerve-wracking 10-minute period before reaching 100 runs.

Remembered by the visitors following their loss in Manchester, the bowler was a strong addition to Dhananjaya de Silva's bowling lineup and could have taken more than just the two wickets he got. He managed to dismiss Chris Woakes with a bouncer, caught by Asitha Fernando at long leg. Kumara also had Joe Root narrowly avoiding being bowled out twice before finally reaching his century at 4:40pm.

Kumara got the first wicket after his captain made a sudden decision at the toss. Dan Lawrence, who was filling in as an opener, only managed to score nine runs before he edged a drive and was caught out.

Ollie Pope almost got out right away when Kumara's delivery had extra bounce. He then made a costly mistake with a top-edged pull shot off Asitha, resulting in his downfall. It was a reckless shot that even England's aggressive playing style couldn't excuse.

Root quickly demonstrated to Pope how to do it, while Asitha followed up with a shot around the corner that was timed perfectly, just like a Swiss clock, to score a boundary on his first ball.

On the 11th, there was a tense moment when Kumara appealed for lbw, which was initially rejected but overturned on review as it was found to be clipping the leg stump bail. However, the rest of the match went smoothly, showcasing his impressive variety of safe scoring techniques.

Ben Duckett will say that he got out after scoring a quick 40 runs because he played a shot with low risk. He is very good at playing the reserve sweep. However, Prabath Jayasuriya may have felt lucky to get him out on a day when he was mainly trying to stop runs as a left-arm spinner. The seam bowlers seemed like they had the best chance of taking wickets, even though the pitch was dry and didn't seem like a good day for bowling first.

All three bowlers displayed their skill in creating variation on the pitch. Asitha made a quick delivery that caught Harry Brook off guard, hitting his pad on 33 after the lunch break. Milan Rathnayake executed a delivery that straightened out and resulted in Jamie Smith being caught behind on 21.

Root, who guided England to a score of 97 for three before lunch and 200 for five by the afternoon break, was fully aware of the situation. He managed to hit 18 boundaries while also being cautious in his defensive play. Lord's, where he is just 97 runs away from surpassing Gooch's record Test total of 2,015 runs at the ground, seems to be a place where Root feels at home and can perform his best.