Joe Root hits England-record 34th test century as hosts close in on series victory over Sri Lanka
London, Aug 31: Joe Root chalked up a record 34th test century for England as the hosts raced closer to a series victory over Sri Lanka in the second test at Lord's on Saturday.
Root equaled Alastair Cook's England record on Thursday and surpassed it after registering a century in both innings.
His latest ton, his seventh at Lord's, was his fastest ever off 111 deliveries before he holed out for 103, the backbone of England's 251 which left Sri Lanka needing a world-record 483 to win.
Sri Lanka was left with seven sessions to either chase down the mammoth total or bat for a draw to tee up a decider at the Oval next week. It closed on 53-2 as bad light ended play early.
Only five other players in history have more hundreds than Root, whose father was in the crowd to watch him move alongside Sunil Gavaskar, Brian Lara, Younis Khan and Mahela Jayawardene on the all-time list. Root is within 95 runs of Cook's England benchmark 12,472 in tests.
It was another forgettable day for Ollie Pope, though.
While he reached double figures for the first time in four innings as the stand-in England captain, Pope was out for 17 to an ugly premeditated hack attempting to meet Sri Lanka's short-ball ploy head-on.
Ben Duckett departed for 24, caught on the rebound by Angelo Mathews from Nishan Madushka's parry, and Pope walked into Asitha Fernando's bumper trap. Attempting to offset Sri Lanka's heavy leg-side field, Pope stepped back and across but picked out the lone off-side boundary rider at deep backward point.
Harry Brook was dropped on 9 and made 37 before holing out off Prabath Jayasuriya, who had Jamie Smith lbw for 26 after he missed a sweep.
Root moved unobtrusively to his sixth fifty-plus score in eight innings this summer, celebrating with a trademark late cut for four off Milan Rathnayake, while showing little discomfort against Jayasuriya.
Chris Woakes chipped to extra cover while Gus Atkinson, full of confidence after his maiden first-class century a day earlier, sliced an unconventional reverse pull to Rathnayake on the third boundary.
While England's lead climbed past 450, there was no danger of a declaration as Root went past Graham Gooch's Lord's record of 2,015 test runs after getting to within four of his landmark hundred.
After keeping the crowd waiting with 16 deliveries in the 90s amid a short-ball barrage from Fernando, Root carved through vacant cover point for four to reach the milestone.
He was last man out when he shoveled to deep square leg but then recorded his 199th and 200th test catches after an early tea when Nishan Madushka and Pathum Nissanka edged to first slip off Atkinson and Olly Stone, respectively.
With light fading, the teams left the field shortly after 5 p.m. local time and play was called off an hour later. Dimuth Karunaratne ended the day on 23 not out with nightwatcher Jayasuriya on 3.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 moment.
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) August 31, 2024
Joe Root goes above Sir Alastair Cook to score the most Test hundreds for England 🐐 pic.twitter.com/cD5aCXl1Id
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Delhi court sentences Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia, associate to life imprisonment
New Delhi (PTI): A Delhi court has sentenced Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia and his associate to life imprisonment under MCOCA provisions, but refused the death penalty saying the offences did not fall under the category of 'rarest of the rare cases'.
Additional Sessions Judge Vandana Jain sentenced Gulia and Dhirpal alias Kana to rigorous imprisonment for life under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
In an order dated December 13, the judge said, "Death sentence can only be awarded in 'rarest of the rare cases' wherein the murder is committed in an extremely inhumane, barbarous, grotesque or dastardly manner as to arouse umbrage of the community at large."
The judge said that on weighing the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, it could be concluded that the present case did not fall under the category, and so, the death penalty could not be imposed upon the convicts.
"Thus, both the convicts are sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs 3 lakh each, for committing the offence under Section 3 of MCOCA," she said.
The public prosecutor, seeking the death penalty for both the accused, submitted that they were involved in several unlawful activities while they were on bail in other cases.
He argued that the accused had shown no respect for the law and acted without any fear of legal consequences, and therefore did not deserve any leniency from the court.
The court noted that both convicts were involved in offences of murder, attempt to murder, extortion, robbery, house trespass, and criminal intimidation. Besides, they had misused the liberty of interim bail granted to them by absconding.
It said, "The terror of the convicts was such that it created fear psychosis in the mind of the general public, and they lost complete faith in the law enforcement agencies and chose to accede to the illegal demands of convicts. Despite suffering losses, they could not gather the courage to depose against them."
The court noted that Gulia was involved in at least 18 criminal cases, while Dhirpal had links to 10 serious offences.
It underlined that MCOCA had been enacted "keeping in view the fact that organised crime had come up as a serious threat to society, as it knew no territorial boundaries and is fuelled by illegal wealth generated by committing the offence of extortion, contract killings, kidnapping for ransom, collection of protection money, murder, etc."
Both accused persons had been convicted on December 10 in a case registered at Najafgarh police station. The police filed a chargesheet under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) and 4 (punishment for possessing unaccountable wealth on behalf of member of organised crime syndicate) of MCOCA.
