England had been yearning for a win for 26 years, and finally, they got that special win over Sri Lanka

Despite the absence of star captain Ben Stokes, England has won the Test series against Sri Lanka. After a thrilling win in the first Test match, England defeated Sri Lanka in a one-sided fashion by 190 runs in the second Test. On the fourth day of this match played at Lord's in London, the big target of 483 runs proved impossible for Sri Lanka, and the entire team was reduced to 292 runs in the third session of the day. With this, they have gained a 2-0 lead in the 3-match series. Not only this but after 26 years, England has got its first victory against Sri Lanka on its ground in London.

Special victory after 26 years

This test match played at the historic Lord's ground was expected to end on the fourth day itself and England's bowlers did not disappoint their fans. On Sunday holiday, the Lord's stands were full of spectators and they got a chance to see their team's victory. This victory was special because, after 26 years, England got its first victory against Sri Lanka in London. Since 1998, England has not won in both the grounds of London, Lord's and Oval. In 1998, Sri Lanka defeated it and every match after that was a draw. In this way, the wait for victory on home ground ended.

Batsmen could not play big innings

Sri Lanka started the fourth day with a score of 2 wickets for 53 runs and soon lost the wicket of night watchman Prabhat Jayasuriya. Chris Woakes got this wicket. After this, Dimuth Karunaratne (55) completed his half-century and shared a 65-run partnership with Angelo Mathews (36). After Karunaratne's dismissal, Mathews got the support of Dinesh Chandimal (58) and the Sri Lankan wicketkeeper-batsman scored a half-century by batting aggressively. Here both these batsmen were out within a few runs and soon Sri Lanka's most effective batsman in the series, Kamindu Mendis (4) also got out cheaply for the first time.

Atkinson's brilliance

Sri Lanka lost 7 wickets for just 200 runs and this is where Sri Lanka's remaining hopes in this match ended. It was just left to see what the margin of defeat would be. Captain Dhananjaya de Silva (50) shared a 73-run partnership with Milan Ratnayake (43), in which Dhananjaya completed his half-century but Atkinson dismissed both of them one by one and completed his 5 wickets. Chris Woakes dismissed the last batsman Lahiru Kumara and gave the team a victory by 190 runs.

Atkinson took 5 wickets for 62 runs. He also scored 118 runs in England's first innings and thus became only the third England player to score a century and take 5 wickets in an innings in the same Test match. Before him, Tony Greg and Ian Botham (5 times) had achieved this feat, the last of which was seen in 1984. Atkinson was chosen as the Player of the Match for this performance. Apart from him, Joe Root scored centuries in both innings.