1st Test: England v Sri Lanka at Lord's

Moeen looked really good on debut.....shame he gave it away.

58.2
Herath to Ali, OUT, tossed up just outside off and Moeen takes a huge swing at it :

A pretty ugly shot, a bit of a wild hack aiming down the ground.

His previous aggressive stroke against Herath was a well-timed slog sweep

but there was no footwork here, playing away from his body and he nicks a

straightforward catch to slip
 

100 *

87.1
Herath to Root, 3 runs, tossed up, Root skips out and works the ball past mid-on, the crowd build

towards release as the batsmen scamper back for the second then the third and :

that is Joe Root's TON, his second at Lord's :

and a big moment for him, he has had a difficult 12 months since that Ashes hundred,

dropped at Sydney but he's anchored England today
 

Sri Lanka can make a comeback in this Test - England will be getting wasted for the next 4 days watching football.

344-5  after 89 overs   

Stumps, day 1

---

Joe Root 102*
Matt Prior 76*

Root tonned up! About time. Hopefully he maintains the consistency as well. Also good to see Prior back in the mix of things, was in the verge of getting kicked out.

Also - Moeen got out to a pretty terrible shot. But otherwise looks good and he's got the goods IMO. Not expecting some terrific career out of him, but he can be a reliable batsman in the middle order.

Classy innings,but hard earned one.He had a tough last year after the Ashes.Oh forgot..Look at that Run rate..almost 4 an over.England are aiming at a 500+ score and make SL fight for survival.The same technique NZ used on SL.A difference,SL don't falter under pressure..
P.S : prior too is back in business..Classic TEST match..!!

The Sri Lankan bowling has been frustrated and kept at bay by the England batsmen. It almost seems like the bowler were running out of ideas. Well its either that or the Sri Lankan captain couldn't think of something different to employ. Not to say the batmen especially Root, Bell an Prior don't deserve their scores for batting well. I suspect this will be a drawn game..but I will wait and see.

524 - 8 after 121 overs

Joe Root  168*