Innings Sri Lanka 196 (Kamindu 74) trail England 427 (Root 143, Atkinson 118, Asitha 5-102) by 231 runs

By the time he was last man out for a punchy 74 from 120 balls, Kamindu had rescued his side from a nadir of 118 for 7 – and briefly lifted his remarkable Test average back above 100 – with his sixth half-century in only eight Test innings. However, none of his colleagues could manage more than Dinesh Chandimal’s 23 and, with more than three days remaining on a pitch that is already showing signs of turn, England had no reservations about batting again.

While it lasted though, Kamindu’s latest onslaught was proof of the spirit that still courses through this Sri Lanka team, even in the midst of another desperate display. On his watch, a previously dominant England attack were given the run-around by an innings containing eight fours and three sixes, one which flew through the window of the MCC Committee Room, and another which left a spectator by the pavilion steps needing treatment for a painful, but thankfully non-serious, blow to the head.

Coming in once more at No. 7, his innings began after Sri Lanka had lost two wickets in an over for the second time in the day to slip to 83 for 5, which soon became 87 for 6 as Chandimal became Atkinson’s 13th wicket in his already remarkable Lord’s record. But, with sturdy support from the tail, not least Lahiru Kumara, whose 22-ball duck ended with a direct-hit run-out from Ollie Pope, Kamindu restored a veneer of respectability to an otherwise flaccid display.

England resumed on their overnight 358 for 7, and – as had been the case on his debut against West Indies in July, when Atkinson had earned himself a total of three honours-board entries with five-fors in each innings and 12 wickets in the match – the prospect of another remarkable slice of Lord’s history could not faze him in the slightest.

Facing up to a ball that was only eight overs old, Atkinson launched his day with back-to-back boundaries as Kumara strayed either side of the wicket, and though he was then given out lbw by Paul Reiffel third-ball, the collective groan of the Lord’s crowd quickly turned to cheers as Atkinson’s review showed the ball to be missing leg.

From then on, there was no stopping him. Milan Rathnayake offered him another leg-stump freebie, tickled through fine leg, and having powered through to 99 with another pull and a drive off the erratic Kumara, Atkinson needed just three more balls – compared to Joe Root’s 12 on day one – before another firm and focussed push through long-off landed him his milestone from just 103 balls, the sixth-fastest century in a Lord’s Test.

Atkinson’s disbelieving smile as he saluted all four corners of the ground was the only slight hint that this was no ordinary day out. Matthew Potts, who had played a key role in an 85-run stand for the eighth wicket, fell soon afterwards as Asitha was belatedly called into the attack to strike with a third-ball outswinger.

Sri Lanka soon reverted to a short-ball tactic, which initially suited Atkinson fine as he thrashed two more fours behind square off Asitha. But, in his attempt to dump the same bowler into the Grandstand, he finally came a cropper, courtesy of a wonderfully timed leap from Rathnayake at deep midwicket, who dived towards the rope – feet in the air – to cling on over his shoulder and end a mighty innings.

And though the bumper ploy wasn’t the best use of Asitha’s merits, he did at least land a deserved moment of personal glory when Stone swung through another short ball to pick out deep fine leg for 15. With figures of 5 for 102, that made him the first Sri Lanka bowler to claim five wickets at Lord’s since Rumesh Ratnayake in 1991.

That left Sri Lanka with a tricky 45 minutes to negotiate before the break, and for the third innings in a row, Nishan Madushka wasn’t up to the task. He should have fallen for a duck in Woakes’ second over when Jamie Smith failed to react to a snick that Root couldn’t reach at first slip, but he had made just 7 – his highest score of the series – when Woakes instead found an inside-edge onto his stumps.

Then, in the final over of the session, Stone capped his return to the side with his first Test wicket in three long years, by inducing another inside-edge, this time off Dimuth Karunaratne, who wrecked his own stumps as his poor series continued with 7 from 26 balls.

Forty minutes and five balls later, Stone had his second. Pathum Nissanka, who could have been run out on 3 by Dan Lawrence’s instinctive shy from short leg, instead fell for 12 as he aimed a gullible flick off the toes and picked out Potts, stationed for that precise shot at leg slip.

Angelo Mathews and Chandimal, two of the mainstays of Sri Lanka’s fightback at Old Trafford, picked up the pieces in a fourth-wicket stand of 48. But into the attack came Potts, who was excellent if under-rewarded in the second innings of that first Test.

With a relentless stump-to-stump line, allied to a hint of each-way movement, Potts duly struck with the first ball of his fourth over, as Mathews was turned inside-out by one that nipped round his edge and into the top of off. Then, three balls later, Dhananjaya de Silva was caught for a duck, off the splice at second slip by another ball that straightened off the pitch, to bring Kamindu to the crease with a familiar crisis unfolding.

Atkinson then picked up his 13th wicket in less than three completed innings at Lord’s when Chandimal, looking tentative after another blow to his injured thumb, flicked weakly off his toes to Lawrence at leg gully for 23.

Rathnayake, like Atkinson, is flushed with confidence after his unlikely batting heroics at Old Trafford, and he launched his own innings with 14 runs from four balls. But Stone pinned him on the helmet with a well-directed bouncer, then Woakes returned to snick him off outside off, with Smith completing a fine diving take.

Thereafter, however, England didn’t find the going quite so easy, although Shoaib Bashir – finally given a spell at Lord’s after going unused in the West Indies Test – settled into an excellent rhythm before prising out Jayasuriya for 8 from 46 balls as he finally lost patience to be bowled through the gate on the charge.

Kamindu then got a life on 62 at Root, at deep square leg, made a hash of a top-edged pull off Stone, but in the grander scheme of things, it didn’t make a huge difference to another dominant England display.