England on track to win series against Sri Lanka by dominating second test after Atkinson century

LONDON (AP) — England moved into a powerful position to win the series against Sri Lanka by taking a stranglehold on the second test at Lord’s after an unlikely century by fast bowler Gus Atkinson and another batting collapse by the tourists on Friday.

After Atkinson’s entertaining 118 off 115 balls led England to 427 all out, Sri Lanka was skittled for 196 in 55.3 overs to face a 231-run, first-innings deficit on Day 2 at the home of cricket.

England chose not to enforce the follow-on and reached stumps on 25-1, with a lead of 256.

Having won the first test in Manchester last week, England is on track to wrap up a second straight series victory this international summer — after a 3-0 win over the West Indies last month.

Arguably the star of England’s test summer has been Atkinson, who has his name on both of the honours boards in the England dressing room at Lord’s.

He took 12 wickets there against the Windies on debut, and has now starred with the bat by scoring a maiden test century with a display of crisp ball-striking that, at times, made him look like a top-order batter.

“Incredible. Very surreal. It still hasn’t sunk in,” Atkinson said. “I didn’t think I’d be on the Lord’s honours board for my batting.”

Atkinson hit 14 fours — one of them a straight drive to bring up three figures — and four sixes. He is the sixth player to have a century and a 10-wicket haul at Lord’s and it was the sixth fastest hundred at the storied ground, after 103 balls.

“I was seeing it really well and getting myself in good positions,” Atkinson said.

Asked if he had been working on his batting, he said, “No,” with a laugh. “But it’s something, moving forward, I’m going to focus on.”

Atkinson said the euphoria of his century meant he struggled with his bowling, but he was still part of a seam attack that had too much for the Sri Lanka batting lineup with their nagging length and line.

Atkinson, Chris Woakes, Olly Stone and Matt Potts all took two wickets each.

Only Kamindu Mendis — with 74 — showed resistance and got out of the 20s.

After losing Nishan Madushka (7) and Dimuth Karunaratne (7) before lunch after they both played on to their own stumps, Sri Lanka saw Pathum Nissanka dismissed soon after the break when he flicked Stone to Potts at leg slip.

Sri Lanka plunged from 83-3 to 87-6, with Potts taking two wickets in four balls to remove Angelo Mathews (22) and then captain Dhananjaya de Silva (0) off his third ball faced.

Shortly after, Dinesh Chandimal clipped Atkinson to Dan Lawrence for 23 to become the latest Sri Lankan to pick out a fielder.

Milan Rathnayake was the next to go when he edged Woakes to diving wicketkeeper Jamie Smith for 19 and it was only Mendis who was holding up England.

Shoaib Bashir bowled Prabath Jayasuriya for 8, stand-in captain Ollie Pope ran out a stranded Lahiru Kumara for a duck and, down to his last partner, Mendis was out attempting to slog Atkinson.

Dan Lawrence (7) was the only wicket to fall in the seven overs bowled in England’s second innings, nicking an inside edge onto his pads and then behind. He walked off, shaking his head, but it didn’t stop it from being an excellent day in general for England.

Ben Duckett was on 15 not out alongside Pope on 2.

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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket