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On Saturday, August 31, Joe Root surpassed his former teammate Alastair Cook to score the most hundreds for England in Test cricket. During the second Test of the series at Lord’s in London, he completed his 34th hundred in the longest format of the game, to help England set-up a massive target of 483 runs for Sri Lanka to chase down.
The post-lunch session of day three saw Joe Root bring up his 34th hundred in just 111 balls, to a thunderous applause of fans at Lord’s in London, who were firmly aware about him breaking the record of Alastair Cook. He played a key role for England in getting up to 251 runs in their second innings after losing a few wickets in quick succession against the Sri Lankan bowlers.
This was his second hundred in the Test match for Joe Root, becoming only the fourth player after George Headley, Graham Gooch, and Michael Vaughan at Lord’s in London. Joe Root was the final batter to be dismissed in the English second innings, finding Kamindu Mendis at fine leg off the bouncer of Lahiru Kumara after scoring 103 off 121.
Watch the video of Joe Root completing his 34th Test hundred here:
Earlier in the Test, England put up a big score of 427 runs on the board in their first inning before bundling out Sri Lanka for 196 runs. Instead of opting to follow-on, England management decided for their batters to set up a massive target for Sri Lanakn batters, which they duly did.
As of this writing, Sri Lanka are in trouble at 43/2 after 14 overs in their pursuit of a 483-run target. A win in this Test match will give England an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
