Sri Lanka was badly beaten by England by 190 runs in the second Lords test match yesterday that was not without a fight, but was largely due to the batting let down to matching England shot for shot in terms of going the distance as the already two in the box with one to go gave insulated the hosts in a series triumph that also saw the British break a 33-year long jinx of not having beaten Sri Lanka at Lords.
The Lankan fightback bordered on three half centuries by Dimuth Karunaratne lost the second of the 3-match Test series to England by 190 runs but did make a fight of it taking it to the final session of the fourth day with half centuries from Dimuth Karunaratne 55, Dinesh Chandimal 55 in a half ton off 43 balls before lunch, and skipper Dhananjaya de Silva 50 in a world record 483 chase that never looked probable given the brittle frontline batting.
While Karnaratne and the Lankan skipper walked the tight rope Dinesh Chandimal carried the offensive by a 43-ball half century laced with 11 boundaries this side of lunch before falling to the second new ball a bat-pad catch off Atkinson.
England’s hoodoo breaking triumph saw Gus Atkinson steal the show from twin century record breaker Joe Root by his dual 118 and 5-wicket second innings haul that made him the third player to achieve the feat in the same match.
Sri Lanka’s resistance was also carried by contributions of 36 by Angelo Mathews and fresher Milan Rathnayake who missed out by 7 runs on what would have been his second test ton in two appearances.
England 427 (Root 143, Atkinson 118, Asitha 5-102) and 251 (Root 103, Asitha 3-52) beat Sri Lanka 196 (Kamindu 74, Potts 2-19) and 292 (Chandimal 58, Karunaratne 55, Dhananjaya 50, Rathnayake 43, Mathews 36, Atkinson 5-62) by 190 runs.