Gus Atkinson enjoyed yet another dream outing at Lord's, following up his maiden Test century in the first innings with his third Test five-for in the second as England completed a convincing, series-sealing win against Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka started day four needing another 430 runs to level the series with eight wickets in hand. The writing was on the wall, it was only a matter of how long they could delay the inevitable. The middle order tried their best, holding England off for 66.4 overs and getting close to the 300-mark, but it was nowhere near enough as they lost by 190 runs.
Atkinson cleans up the tail
After dismissing opener Nishan Madushka late on day three, Atkinson didn't have much of an impact through the first half of day four. His first breakthrough came in the 46th over of the day, when he had Dinesh Chandimal (58) caught at short leg with a nip-backer.
It didn't take him long to get into a rhythm as Kamindu Mendis (4), Dhananjaya de Silva (50) and Milan Rathnayake (43) all fell prey to the right-arm seamer, giving him his third five-wicket haul (5-62) in just his fifth Test match. His first two five-fors also came at Lord's.
The elite hundred, five-for Test club
Earlier in the game, Atkinson surprised with the bat, scoring his maiden first-class century and getting on the Lord's batting honours board as well, having already got on the bowling one during his Test debut against the West Indies earlier this season.
Also read: Stats: Gus Atkinson joins elite all-round club in record time with Lord's century
As he completed his five-for in the second innings to get his name on a Lord's honours board for the third time in his two-month long Test career, Atkinson joined a plethora of great all-rounders to have achieved the double of scoring a hundred and picking a five-for in the same Test match. Overall, this was the 35th instance of a player doing so in Test history, with the last two such feats belonging to Ravindra Jadeja.
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— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) September 1, 2024
England secure the series, and their unbeaten Test summer continues with a 190-run win at Lord's 🏴
Scorecard ➡️ https://t.co/7UGllgF7G5#ENGvSL pic.twitter.com/I0RrE015ng
Atkinson became only the third Englishman to take a five-wicket haul and socre a century in the same Test match, joining two elite names: Tony Grieg and Sir Ian Botham. Greig's performance came against the West Indies in 1974 in Bridgetown, where he took 6-164 and scored 148. Botham, on the other hand, achieved this feat a staggering five times, easily the most by any player in Test history.
Atkinson's effort is also just the third instance of a player scoring a hundred and taking a five-for in a Test match at Lord's. Botham was the last to do so, 36 years back, in a Test against Pakistan, where he took 8-34 with the ball and scored 108. The only other such performance at Lord's was by India's Vinoo Mankad in 1952.
Also read: Lucky No.8: Gus Atkinson double-role could end England's desperate search
A magical start to Test career
After five Test matches, Atkinson's record reads 33 wickets at 18.06 and 196 runs at 32.66. He is joint-second among English players on the highest wicket-takers list after the first five Test matches.
Nicholas Cook leads with 34 wickets in his first five Tests, while Atkinson is tied with Thomas Richardson and Fred Trueman at the second place with 33 wickets each.
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