SL vs ENG, 2021: 2nd Test, Day 3 – Joe Root's record-breaking ton, Embuldeniya's 7-wicket haul and more stats

Joe Root fought his way through to a 309-ball 186 in England’s first innings to bring down the deficit under 50 runs. Root put on century partnerships with Jonny Bairstow (28) and Jos Buttler (55) while Lasith Embuldeniya kept taking wickets. Dominic Bess (32) shared an 81-run stand for the 7th wicket before Embuldeniya struck twice to extend his wickets tally of seven. Root got runout in the final over of the day leaving England 339/9 and 42 runs still behind Sri Lanka’s first innings total.

Here are all the statistical highlights from an interesting 3rd day’s play during the SL vs ENG Test at Galle:

A record hundred for Root:

3 – The 186-run knock was Joe Root’s 3rd hundred in Test cricket on Sri Lankan soil; the joint 2nd most by any visiting player in Sri Lanka. Sachin Tendulkar leads the list with five centuries while Brian Lara, Younis Khan, Virender Sehwag, Azhar Ali, Mohammad Ashraful, Cheteshwar Pujara and Shikhar Dhawan also have three tons apiece in Sri Lanka against the home team.

4 – Root has a total of four Test tons against Sri Lanka which are the most by any English batsman surpassing three each by Marcus Trescothick, Sir Alastair Cook, Kevin Pietersen and Jonny Bairstow.

Milestones galore for Joe:

15093 – Joe Root became only the 2nd player to complete 15000 runs in International cricket for England. Sir Alastair Cook was the first player with the feat having finished his career with 15737 runs.

8238 – Root ended the 3rd day’s play with 8238 runs in Test cricket which is the 4th highest by any player for England. Root went past David Gower (8231), Kevin Pietersen (8181) and Sir Geoffrey Boycott (8114) during his 186-run knock.

644 – Root has scored 644 runs in Test cricket on Sri Lankan soil thus far; the most by any Englishman surpassing Michael Vaughan’s tally of 470 runs. Root has scored a total of 990 Test runs against Sri Lanka which are the 2nd most for England behind Sir Alastair Cook’s 1290 runs.

A big series for the England skipper:

415 – Joe Root has scored 415 runs in this Test series thus far which are the most by an England skipper in a 2-match Test series surpassing Sir Alastair Cook’s 342 runs in the 2010 Test series in Bangladesh.

Root’s 415 runs are also the 2nd most by any player for England in a 2-match Test series behind Wally Hammond’s 563 runs in the 1933 Test series in New Zealand. Root is also the first England player to amass 400+ in any Test series against Sri Lanka.

415 – Root became the first visiting player with 400+ runs in a 2-match Test series on Sri Lankan soil. Stephen Fleming’s 376 runs in the 2003 Test series were the previous most aggregate in a 2-match series against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka.

Root gets runout yet again:

8 – Joe Root now has been dismissed runout in Test cricket on eight occasions; the most by any player in this format while playing for England. Root went past Sir Geoffrey Boycott and Matt Prior who have been dismissed seven times apiece in this format.

6 – Six of Root’s eight runout dismissals in Test cricket came while leading England team. Ricky Ponting (9) and Stephen Fleming (6) are the other players to be dismissed run out on six or more occasions as captain in Test cricket.

186 – Joe Root’s 186 is now the 3rd highest individual score by a captain in Test cricket which came to an end via runout. Dudley Nourse scored 208 while leading South Africa in the 1951 Nottingham Test against England before getting runout while Sir Alastair Cook got runout on 190 during the 2012 Kolkata Test against India.

Thirimanne’s record in catches:

1 – Lahiru Thirimanne became the first fielder to claim five catches in a Test innings for Sri Lanka. He is overall the 13th player to claim five catches in a Test innings as an outfielder. Lahiru has a chance to become the first with six catches if he gets involved in England’s 10th wicket of the innings.

1 – Lahiru Thirimanne took five catches thus far in England’s first innings; all of them in the bowling of Lasith Embuldeniya. Thirimanne is now the first player in Test history to claim five catches as an outfielder in a Test innings off a bowler.

Embuldeniya stars with the ball:

2016 – Lasith Embuldeniya’s 7-wicket haul in England’s first innings is the first for Sri Lanka in Test cricket since Rangana Herath (8/63) during the 2016 Harare Test against Zimbabwe.

6 – Embuldeniya is now only the 6th player to bag a 7-wicket haul for Sri Lanka in Test cricket and the 3rd after Muttiah Muralitharan and Herath to do so at the Galle Stadium. He is also the 2nd Sri Lankan with a 7-wicket Test haul against England after Muralitharan who has four such hauls including three in England.