Joe Root breaks Sir Alastair Cook’s record as he brings up 34th Test hundred and becomes England’s all-time leading centurion – as the hosts finish day two at Lord’s with a huge 430-run lead over Sri Lanka

Joe Root became England’s leading Test centurion on Saturday afternoon, scoring 103 runs to reach his 34th hundred in the second Test against Sri Lanka.

Root equalled Sir Alastair Cook’s record of 33 Test centuries during England’s first innings with a sensational 143 and today surpassed the former England captain at the top of the order with another century.

The match was called off at around 6pm on Saturday evening due to poor light, with England taking a commanding 430-run lead against Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka had already bowled out England for 251 runs on Saturday. The tourists had to play 20 overs and reached a score of 53-2 before the players left the field.

That was really fun. It was of course a fun situation when you are far ahead in the race. But you want to push it forward and get it in the strongest position possible.

“That was great fun,” Root told BBC Test Match Special on Saturday night.

‘Of course it was a great situation when you are far ahead in the match. But you want to push it forward and get into the strongest possible position.

“And in these circumstances you have to try to take advantage of them. So it’s trying to be proactive and smart in the circumstances that we had.

“I wasn’t nervous. It was just about finding the balance between moving the game forward and trying to maximise the time we had. I didn’t want the game to stand still, that was the main thing on my mind.

‘It doesn’t mean you can’t score runs if everything isn’t perfect and that’s something I’ve learned. There are other ways to be effective, you can rotate the striker, take away a few boundaries and it becomes easier.’

More to come…