England's record win at Lord's provides WTC boost
Sep 02, 2024
London [UK], September 2 : Joe Root's twin hundreds and Gus Atkinson's inspirational all-round act helped England to register a confident win over Sri Lanka at Lord's on Sunday.
With this win, they have 81 WTC points in their pocket and have improved their WTC point percentage to 45. They remain at the fourth place behind India, Australia, and New Zealand, as per the ICC.
On the other hand, Sri Lanka's loss has seen them drop point percentage from 40 to 33.33%, and the Asian side are now behind South Africa and Bangladesh at the seventh position.
Atkinson's heroics ensured England's win on the fourth day itself. He scored 118 and 14 with the bat, and picked 2/40 and 5/62 with the ball.
Atkinson is only the third England Men's player to have achieved this feat in Tests. Ian Botham (who did it on five occasions), and Tony Greig (once) are the other two. Atkinson became the first England player to have done it since 1984.
The Three Lions created a record as they registered the biggest margin victory of 190 runs at Lord's against the Islanders. The visitors were bowled out for 292 runs as they were chasing a target of 483 runs
It was England's fifth successive win at home in the ongoing season, a first since 2004 when Michael Vaughan's side had gone undefeated with a 3-0 and 4-0 series win over New Zealand and the West Indies, respectively.
It was also the first time Sri Lanka had lost a Test at Lord's since 1991, ending a run of five successive drawn games at the venue, as per the ICC.
On August 31, Joe Root had smashed his 34th Test ton in the second innings, breaking the England record and equalling the likes of Sunil Gavaskar, Matthew Hayden, Younis Khan, and Mahela Jayawardene.
