As Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum watched the second day at Lord’s from the pavilion balcony, there were times they could have been forgiven for reaching for the box of cigars and not just to get in there before the mooted ban on smoking in outdoor spaces.
Sri Lanka had a grizzly time of it, no question, shipping 427 with the ball and then rolled for 196 in 55.3 overs. At stumps England were batting again, the stand-in captain, Ollie Pope, eschewing the follow-on – and then a nightwatcher – as the hosts closed on 25 for one. But even factoring in the shortcomings of the tourists, the overhaul Stokes and McCullum have instigated this summer – that switch from living in the moment to building towards the future – had gained further vindication.
There was no question as to the headline act, even if it came early in the piece, as Gus Atkinson, 74 not out overnight, sealed a maiden Test century just 23 minutes into play. Stationed at No 8 and having never tasted three figures in senior cricket previously, the 26-year-old was unflappable during this swift conversion, driving Lahiru Kumara for a sixth four of the morning and letting out a guttural roar.
Stokes tipped Atkinson for runs earlier in the summer and his eye for a player’s attributes – rather than their back catalogue of achievements – has proved pretty sharp these past two years. Atkinson is now the sixth men’s cricketer to claim a spot on all three Test honours boards at Lord’s, that 12-wicket debut against West Indies in July ticking off both bowling feats and his 118 from 115 balls here completing the set.
The analysts had day one down as the lowest amount of swing and seam at Lord’s since ball-tracking was introduced 19 years ago; a bit of context for England’s total, even if it was Dhananjaya de Silva who opted to bowl first. It signposted the likelihood of needing to chisel out 10 – and eventually 20 – wickets on this surface, and not least for an attack that had lost its point of difference through Mark Wood’s thigh injury.
But despite another classy knock from Kamindu Mendis – the left-hander following last week’s century with a flamboyant 74 that left one spectator needing medical attention after being hit by a six – England seized control quickly. Sri Lanka slightly wilted, two men snared by leg traps, De Silva nicking off for a third-ball duck and a run out among the wickets. Equally, England’s attack dovetailed with each other well here and were rewarded for a tighter line than their counterparts, reducing them to 118 for seven after Asitha Fernando had got on the honours board himself with five for 102.
Olly Stone’s performance on his return to the side after a three-year, injury-blighted absence was encouraging. Though not touching Wood’s speeds (few can), and a little profligate by way of runs, he claimed two wickets – missed a third when Joe Root dropped Mendis on 62 – and rattled a few bones with his shock ball. Stone was too slippery for Dimuth Karunaratne, who chopped on for seven, and profited from Pope’s deployment of a leg gully when Pathum Nissanka fiddled him around the corner.
Chris Woakes did his thing at Lord’s, two wickets with nip and seam that took his tally at the ground to 30 scalps at a remarkable 12 apiece, while Matthew Potts, who grew into the match in Manchester and extracted the most amount of movement here, broke the first sign of a pushback from the Sri Lanka top order. He bowled Angelo Mathews with a beauty that angled in and went down the slope, and made it a double‑wicket maiden – W00W00 on the TV graphic – with De Silva’s edge to slip.
Then there was Atkinson. While perhaps becoming a little fatigued towards the end of this breakout summer, he claimed the important pelt of Dinesh Chandimal – another to perish down leg – and shut down Mendis’s fun at the end.
With Shoaib Bashir bowling Prabath Jayasuriya and Pope’s arrowed throw from square leg running out Lahiru Kumara, it made for a pretty clinical, professional display. Pope’s call to bat again was understandable, even if Dan Lawrence, with an inside edge on to pad for a caught behind, fell late in the piece.
All of which is not to hang up the bunting, necessarily, and not least with Sri Lanka appearing a little ragged since tea on day one. But this is also an England attack that has undergone a radical shift in the past 12 months. The five frontline bowlers who played the fifth Ashes Test last summer ended it with 1,751 wickets between them (not including Stokes, 196, who didn’t bowl in the match), while the five here at Lord’s boasted a combined 257 coming to a match they now control.
