Gus Atkinson's Heroics Hurt Sri Lanka Before England Bowlers Strike In 2nd Test

Gus Atkinson scored a dashing maiden century before England strengthened their grip on the second Test against Sri Lanka at Lord's on Friday. Atkinson's sparkling 118 helped take England to 427 all out in their first innings after Joe Root had made a masterful 143 on Thursday to equal the England record of 33 Test hundreds held by Alastair Cook. Sri Lanka then collapsed to 87-6 on the second day. But Kamindu Mendis, fresh from a fine 113 in Sri Lanka's five-wicket loss in the first Test at Old Trafford, made an admirable 74 to prevent complete humiliation before he was last man out in a total of 196.

All of England's pace attack took two wickets each, Matthew Potts returning figures of 2-19 in 11 overs and Chris Woakes 2-21 in 13.

Sri Lanka were 231 runs behind but stand-in England captain Ollie Pope did not enforce the follow-on, with the hosts 25-1 in their second innings at stumps -- an overall lead of 256 as they looked to go 2-0 up in a three-match series.

Ben Duckett was 15 not out with Pope, having managed just three single figure scores since replacing the injured Ben Stokes as skipper, two not out after deciding against shielding himself from the new ball with a nightwatchman.

But the day belonged to Atkinson as he cemented his love affair with Lord's. 

The 26-year-old, whose previous highest first-class score was 91 for Surrey against a Sri Lanka Development XI in 2022, only made his Test debut against the West Indies, also at Lord's, last month.

Atkinson marked that occasion with 12 wickets (7-45 and 5-61) to etch his name on the famed Lord's dressing room honours boards reserved for bowlers who take five or more wickets in a Test innings and 10 or more in a match. 

Few would have backed Atkinson to get on the