Root became the fourth-youngest England batsman to score a double century

Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo

England batsman Joe Root scored his maiden double century on the second day of the first Test against Sri Lanka at Lord’s.

But, after England declared on 575, Sri Lanka fought back behind opening batsman Kaushal Silva’s unbeaten knock of 62.

Starting out the day on 344/5, Root and wicketkeeper Matt Prior managed to convert their 135-run partnership into a 171-run partnership before Prior was caught by Silva at short leg off the bowling of Shaminda Eranga.

Prior’s fantastic knock of 86 came off 131 balls and included 10 boundaries.During his innings, Prior also recorded a personal milestone as he surpassed 4,000 Test runs.

Debutant Chris Jordan scored 19 runs before he was caught behind off the bowling of Eranga.

Root and Stuart Broad stabilised the innings with a 64-run partnership before Broad was caught by Dimuth Karunaratne at deep midwicket off the bowling of Nuwan Pradeep for 47.

Root and Liam Plunkett kept the runs flowing with an 81-run partnership, during which Root surpassed the 150-run mark, before Plunkett was caught by Silva at midwicket off the bowling of Pradeep for 39.

Root and James Anderson amassed an unbeaten 28-run partnership, during which Root became the fourth-youngest English batsman to score a maiden double century, before England captain Alastair Cook decided to declare with his side on 575/9.

Root finished on 200 off 298 balls, which included 16 boundaries, while Anderson remained undefeated on nine off 15 deliveries, which included one boundary.

Pradeep was the pick of the bowlers with four wickets, while Eranga snapped up three and Nuwan Kulasekara and Rangana Herath chipped in with one wicket apiece.

Trailing by 575 runs, Sri Lanka got off to a solid start as Karunaratne and Silva put together a 54-run partnership before Karunaratne was caught behind off the bowling of Jordan for 38 runs.

Silva and Kumar Sangakkara mustered an unbeaten 86-run partnership, during which Silva brought up his half-century, before the umpires decided to bring play to an end for the day.

Silva scored 62 off 141 balls, which included 10 boundaries, while Sangakkara made 32 off 61 deliveries, which included four boundaries.

Silva struck 10 boundaries during his unbeaten knock of 62

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

During his knock of 32, Sangakkara recorded another milestone in his illustrious career as he leapfrogged legendary Australia batsman Allan Border into eighth place on the list of top run-scorers in Test history.

Jordan was the only bowler to take a wicket.

Sri Lanka ended day two on 140/1 and will continue batting tomorrow at 11:00 local time or 10:00 GMT.