On Sunday, September 8, England cricketer Joe Root surpassed former Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara to become the sixth-highest run-scorer in Test cricket history. The 33-year-old reached this milestone on Day 3 of the current Test match between England and Sri Lanka at The Oval in London.
In the first ball of the 15th over during England’s second innings, Root accomplished this milestone by hitting a boundary through the cover area thereby surpassing Sangakkara’s total of 12,400 runs in the all-time run-scorers list. The right-handed batsman is thus standing at sixth spot in with 12,402 runs collected from 146 matches played so far. To climb to 5th place he has to go past Sir Alastair Cook who has scored 12,471 runs.
In his spectacular form, Yorkshire player has been able to break Alaister Cook’s record for most Test centuries scored by an England player during the second Test match against Sri Lanka.
Root scored 143 runs in the first innings at Lord’s and equalled Cook’s tally of 33 centuries. He even made another century of 103 runs off 121 balls within a second innings making it an all-time high for any England player in Tests.
Joe Root is out for 12 as Sri Lanka leads in the 3rd Test against England
On the second day Sri Lanka concluded by scoring 211 runs but lost 5 wickets with Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis both batting on 64 and 54 respectively. On day three however they collapsed from a promising position of 220 runs at the end of the fifth day to only score an additional 43 runs before being bowled out for 263 hence conceding a 62-run lead in the first innings.
In addition, England had difficulty getting going in their second innings after having lost Ben Duckett for seven early on in the third over. Shortly after that captain and first innings centurion Ollie Pope was bowled by Lahiru Kumara for just seven runs. Daniel Lawrence made some quick runs worth thirty-five before he became Kumara’s second victim.
Joe Root, England’s senior batsman, was dismissed for 12 by Vishwa Fernando, who later also removed Harry Brook, leaving England in a precarious position at 69/5 after 16.3 overs. Lahiru Kumara then took his third wicket of the innings by dismissing Chris Woakes for a duck, and Milan Rathnayake followed by getting rid of Gus Atkinson.
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