Key events
“Good morning,” writes John Starbuck. “Here’s hoping the match can be concluded by tomorrow, said he selfishly, as I have a hospital procedure on Monday afternoon. We all have different desires.”
We all wish you well John. (Well, I assume we all do.)
Simon Burnton on Gus Atkinson
It was impossible not to imagine a fretful evening, a night of interrupted, restless sleep, a tight fist of tension settling in his gut through the morning, swelling and clenching and twisting sadistically, and, after all that, it being something of a triumph simply to haul his body to the crease, prospects ruined by the moment’s ripe potential and by being forced to spend so long pondering it.
Clearly these are thought processes that are not conducive to sporting success, and evidently Atkinson did not endure them.
Read Ali Martin’s day two report
Preamble
Good morning. I said good morning. Now, what comes next in this list: 1959, 1967, 1978, 2004, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2017, 2018, 2022? England will hope the answer is 2024, because those are the summers in which they have won at least five Tests.
If all goes to plan, the team nobody is calling the Class of 24 will join the list sometime tomorrow. England are in total control at Lord’s after their most dominant day of the series, the highlight of which was Gus Atkinson’s stupendous maiden Test century.
They resume on 25 for 1, a lead of 256, with an unspoken remit to blast Sri Lanka completely out of contention by tea. The greater good comes first, but a few players could do with some runs. Ben Duckett has had a relatively lean spell since his astonishing 153 at Rajkot in February, Ollie Pope has loudly had a poor series and Harry Brook has temporarily forgotten how to convert starts: five of his last seven scores have been between 32 and 56.
There are some emerging demons in the pitch so this won’t necessarily be a day at the buffet for England. But it’s hard to see how they don’t win this game and therefore the series. Sri Lanka were admirably competitive for the first five days of this series; yesterday felt like another demonstration of Mike Atherton’s favourite analogy.
A lengthy Test series can be likened to an arm wrestle; you have a struggle for a short while but it often ends with one team completely flattened. Well played India
— Mike atherton (@Athersmike) March 6, 2021
