England are on a great run. After thumping Sri Lanka by xxx runs at Lord’s, the Three Lions have won the 3-match Test series and improved their chances to make the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) Final 2025. In the absence of Ben Stokes, Ollie Pope has led the side well, albeit without much performance with the ball. Having whitewashed the West Indies in July, England now have a chance to end their home season with a record of 6-0 as they move to The Oval for the final match.
Despite the WTC Final being held in England in 2021 and 2023, the Three Lions weren’t able to make full use of their home conditions. They finished fourth in the previous two cycles (2019-21 and 2021-23) and coincidentally are placed fourth in the WTC race right now. To reach the final is far away now, but they certainly have a chance to make that happen.
Joe Root & Gus Atkinson take England home
The reason why England have a chance to win the ICC Test Mace is Joe Root. The former Test skipper hit twin tons at Lord’s, broke Alistair Cook’s record (33) of most centuries by an English, and is on the verge of becoming the most successful catcher in Test history.
Top scorer in both innings, Root’s 143 helped England go from 130/4 to 427. Now, Gus Atkinson helped Root as well, as he scored his maiden first-class/Test hundred after coming at 7 down. The English bowlers did a fine job restricting Sri Lanka to just 196 as they virtually won the match after gaining a 231-run lead. Pope decided not to enforce the follow-on, and England came to bat once again.
With the aim of scoring quick runs, wickets started falling. Similar to the first inning, England were 127/4, and although Root scored a hundred once again, the hurry to score saw him dismissed soon after (103 of 121) while no other batter even scored a fifty. The mammoth 483-run target was set for Sri Lanka, and they didn’t have the best start. Before the close of play on the third day, Sri Lanka were already 2 down and still needed 430 to win.
Dimuth Karunaratne fired for the first time in the series but fell soon after reaching his fifty. Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal resisted as well, but both departed before Sri Lanka even reached 200. When Kamindu Mendis, their best batter of the series, departed for just 4, all hope was lost. Captain Dhananjaya de Silva was aided by Milan Rathnayake, and the duo stitched a 73-run stand. As soon as that stand was broken by Gus Atkinson, the floodgates opened. Atkinson got a 5-wicket haul and scored an hundred in the match as England won by 190 runs.
