England breezed to victory and took a 2-0 series lead against Sri Lanka on Day Four at Lords.
Gus Atkinson took five wickets on Sunday, rounding up the second Test win with a day to spare.
Atkinson secured his first century in the first innings and then went on to become the third England player to score 100 runs and take five wickets in a Test.
England were made to work for their win though.
Dimuth Karunaratne, Dinesh Chandimal and Dhananjaya de Silva all scored half-centuries, but Sri Lanks were chasing a huge score of 483 set by the hosts.
Joe Root dropped two easy catches but once the second new ball came out after tea, it was over quickly.
Gus Atkinson leads England to an emphatic victory at Lord’s. 👏
A super start to his International career and a series win for England.
#ENGvSL #BBCCricket pic.twitter.com/g3cn2T6MIC
— Test Match Special (@bbctms) September 1, 2024
It is England’s fifth win in a row, following the 3-0 win over West Indies earlier in the summer.
The final Test will begin on Friday, and they will have fresh motivation knowing they can have a clean sweep of wins across a Test summer for the first time since 2004.
Stand-in captain Ollie Pope said after the match: “A good win and some special individual performances from Gus and Joe.
“In an ideal world you want to lead from the front with the bat but we’re 2-0 up in the series.
“I haven’t contributed in the way I’d have liked but I’d still take that every day of the week.
“That’s the way cricket is sometimes – form comes and goes.
Honours Board addict. pic.twitter.com/Q3UVtRUnIm
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) September 1, 2024
“The best players are the ones who can draw a line under it. Hopefully I can put a score together.”
Player of the Match Atkinson added: “I have had a good few games here, I don’t know what it is. I enjoy bowling down the slope but the batting, I’m not sure!”
For Sri Lanka, it was time again to reflect on what could have been.
They played well in spells but ultimately struggled to dislodge England’s batting rhythm.
Captain De Silva said: “We are a much better team than we have shown.
“I would have batted first [if I had my time again at the toss]. I got it wrong. But we did really well in the first innings when we were bowling.”
