Joe Root achieved an England record of 34 Test hundreds when he hit three figures for the second time in the second Test against Sri Lanka at Lord’s.
Joe Root achieved an England record of 34 Test hundreds when he hit three figures for the second time in the second Test against Sri Lanka at Lord’s. Root, who hit 143 in the first innings to equal the England record of 33 centuries held by the retiring Alastair Cook, reached a century on Saturday’s third day when he cut Lahiru Kumara for the tenth four off 111 balls. It meant Root had eclipsed his fellow former England captain’s record. It is Root’s 145th Test, while Cook has played 161 matches.On the third day, he was the last man out for 103 as England scored 251 in the second innings. Sri Lanka faced a massive aim of 483 to tie the three-match series at 1-1.
Root’s seventh Test century at Lord’s also gave him sole possession of the record for the most Test hundreds at the ‘Home of Cricket’, which he had previously shared with England’s Graham Gooch and Michael Vaughan, who all managed six.
Root also became the fourth batsman in Test history to make hundreds in both innings at Lord’s, alongside West Indies’ George Headley (1939), Gooch (1990), and Vaughan (2004).Gooch’s 456-run total against India at Lord’s in 1990, which included innings of 333 and 123, still stands as the greatest runs made by a single batsman in any Test.
Root’s recent century also pushed him into joint sixth place on the all-time list of Test century-makers, which is headed by India’s Sachin Tendulkar, who produced 51 hundreds in 200 Tests between 1989 and 2013.
The only batsman in this group who is still playing Test cricket is Root, 33.
