ENG vs SL, 2nd Test: England's Gus Atkinson took his third five-for at Lord's by playing in just his second Test match at the iconic venue and helped his team defeat Sri Lanka 2-0 in the three-match Test series. On Sunday, the hosts skittled Sri Lanka out for 292 runs and won the match by 190 runs. Atkinson registered figures of 16-4-62-5 and took his tally to 19 wickets in the two Test matches which were held at this venue.
While chasing a humongous target of 483 runs, the Dhananjaya de Silva-led side suffered a batting collapse. Dimuth Karunaratne scored a gritty knock of 55 runs off 129 balls and then Olly Stone dismissed him. They were reeling at 115/4 and that's when Angelo Matthews and Dinesh Chandimal stitched a partnership of 59 runs but then the youngster Shoaib Bashir dismissed Chandimal for 36 runs.
Chandimal looked in sublime form as he scored 58 runs off 62 balls, in which he had smashed 11 fours. At one point it looked like he would score big, but Atkinson dismissed him. Kamindu Mendis, who was performing brilliantly in the longest format, couldn't score more than double digits. But Dhananjaya de Silva helped the team bounce back.
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He stitched a stable partnership of 73 runs with Milan Rathnayake. The Sri Lankan captain also scored a quickfire knock of 50 runs off 71 balls. Rathnayake had also put up a fight by scoring a gritty knock of 43 runs but his efforts went in vain as Atkinson dismissed both the batters and led his team inch closer towards victory.
Chris Woakes dismissed Lahiru Kumara and led his team across the line. Woakes and Stone took two wickets each. Besides his brilliance with the ball, Atkinson also made significant contributions with the bat by scoring his maiden Test century during the first innings.
Atkinson was adjudged the Player of the Match award although Joe Root did score double ton and shattered numerous records, like that of Alastair Cook.