Joe Root set an England record of 34 Test centuries when he reached three figures for the second time in the second Test against Sri Lanka at Lord’s. Root, who made 143 in the first innings to move level with the previous England record of 33 hundreds held by the retired Alastair Cook, went to a century on Saturday’s third day when he cut Lahiru Kumara for the 10th four off 111 balls faced. It meant Root surpassed his fellow former England captain’s mark. It is Root’s 145th Test compared to Cook’s career tally of 161 matches.

He was last man out for 103 in England’s second-innings total of 251 on the third day. Sri Lanka faced a mammoth target of 483 to level this three-match series at 1-1.

Root’s seventh Test hundred at Lord’s also gave him sole possession of the record for the most Test centuries at the ‘Home of Cricket’ he had shared with the England duo of Graham Gooch and Michael Vaughan, who both managed six apiece.

Root also became the fourth batsman to have scored hundreds in both innings of a Test at Lord’s, joining the West Indies’ George Headley (1939), Gooch (1990) and Vaughan (2004).

Gooch’s combined tally of 456 runs against India at Lord’s in 1990, comprising innings of 333 and 123, remains a record for the most runs scored by a single batsman in any Test.

Root’s latest century also moved him into joint-sixth place in an all-time list of Test century-makers headed by India great Sachin Tendulkar, who scored 51 hundreds in 200 Tests from 1989-2013.

The 33-year-old Root is the only batsman in this group who is still an active Test cricketer.

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